Portal: First Mission
by Esperwen
Summary: [Sequel to Portal: Transitions] Team 13 are now off on their first mission. Objective: escort the client to a village 5 days away. Rank: Midlevel B
1. Conscription

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, Chinatown, family feuds, mid-level B-rank missions, twins, typos, or a slightly sadistic Hokage. Or Makar. (teardrop)

A/N: We're back in the Matrix! First there was writer's block, then there was the beginning of school, and then there was that thunderstorm that knocked out my internet. But now Ruroni (who used to be Nuke) and I can upload stuff! It's wonderful! Wonderful, I tell you!

Korii: Just start the story, already.

A/N: ...Right. Right. Ok, here's 'Portal: First Mission'!

* * *

_"None of that, Michelle, now we go," Ionel said, motioning towards the door._

_Denise and Corey let Ionel pass them before turning to Michelle. With a grin she joined them, and they re-entered Konoha together._

_As soon as everyone was through to doorway, Corey, who had been holding the door, let the door's handle go while it was too close to swing firmly shut. Instead of closing properly, the door remained slightly ajar._

_Unbeknownst to the five portal users, at 12:01pm in Chinatown, the greenhouse was still there._

Oo...flashback of DOOM! ...Ok, back to the present.

"I told you, Pooriin, it's no problem!" Michiko exclaimed.

Welcome back, Michiko of Konoha, formerly of the Tea Village. The long, black-haired, 12-year-old, blue Sakura-outfit look-alike was walking down the road towards the Third Hokage's building. She had Shino walking beside her on her right, and her left arm linked with one of her best friends.

"But Shino looks like he's sulking," Pooriin pointed out, "I'm really, really, _really_ sorry I interrupted you guys! Don't be mad!"

Welcome back, Chatora Pooriin of Konoha, formerly of the Thyme Village. The pony-tailed, also 12-year-old, pink Ino-outfit look-alike looked upset. Just a few moments ago, she had walked in on one of the very few close moments that Michiko and Shino shared, and now she felt bad.

"I'm not mad..." Shino muttered in his low voice, just loud enough for Pooriin to hear.

Welcome back, Aburame Shino. ...oh wait, you know this guy already...and if you watch fillers, he never left...nevermind!

"He _sounds_ mad," Pooriin mumbled, burying her face in Michiiko's shoulder, still upset, as they walked.

"It's fine, Pooriin. I'm not mad," Shino said stiffly.

"Really? Thanks, Shino!" Pooriin exclaimed, suddenly happy again, jumping away from Michiko and giving Shino a hug.

"No problem," Shino said, thinking, _Get off of me!_

"Um...Pooriin..." Michiko tried not to laugh as she held a hand up for attention, _She's forgotten Shino doesn't like physical contact that's given from other people...tsk...where's Kiba when you need him?_

Michiko waved her hand, trying to catch Pooriin's eye, but the slightly older girl was oblivious to Michiko's concern. Shino sweatdropped and prayed for an interruption.

Which, fortunately, arrived quite quickly.

"Hey, Shino! Shino!" a familiar rough voice called out.

"Kiba!" Pooriin exclaimed, finally letting go of Shino (who now had about three popped nerves on his forehead).

"There is a Kamisama," Shino whispered reverently, just loud enough so only Michiko could hear.

The tan-skinned girl laughed as Pooriin rushed off to embrace Kiba, while Shino straightened out the wrinkles in his coat.

"Hey, Kiba, I was just thinking about you," Michiko grinned, waving to her friend.

"Hey, guys," the dog-user greeted cheerfully, Akamaru bouncing around his feet, trying to get some attention, "I need to borrow Shino for a little bit; our team's having a meeting."

"It's no problem; we were just about to ditch him anyway," Michiko shrugged carelessly.

"Hey..." Shino grumbled.

Michiko grinned and gave him a 'peace' sign with her fingers while Kiba walked one way down the road, and Pooriin in the other.

"C'mon, Shino!" Kiba called, not looking back over his shoulder.

"Hurry up, Michiko!" Pooriin yelled, also not turning.

Michiko felt the smile slide from her face as Shino remained stoic.

_Oh, come on...it was a joke,_ Michiko thought, slowly letting her hand drop down, _Forget it..._

Michiko looked down and began walking past Shino to follow Pooriin; then she felt his arm catch her and she found Shino embracing her.

"I'll see you later," he whispered, and suddenly he was gone again.

Michiko looked up, surprised, and turning she saw that Shino was already walking beside Kiba. The girl glanced at the fresh scar hole in her wrist and smiled to herself, before running to catch up to Pooriin.

By the way, a note about the four dogs: They are now running around quite happily in Konoha, as Michiko and Deniizu have given them the day off. Why? ...Why not? Don't worry, they're safe since they're all together. So, moving on...

"Hey, Hokage-sama! Inel-sensei!" Michiko greeted, entering the office with Pooriin, "Oh, and Goudon and Bikto. Nice to see you!"

The Third Hokage was sitting at his desk, smoking his pipe as usual. Michiko's team's sensei, Inel, was standing beside it in his customary 'Sound-nin' uniform. Though Satoki Inel was no longer part of the Hidden Village of Oto, he still wore the same uniform as when he first immigrated. And for some reason, the man still had the same accent as when he was in our world...(sweatdrop).

"We are just waiting for the rest of Team 13," Inel said, "Deniizu and Korii will come soon."

"That's what he said 15 minutes ago," Bikto grumbled.

"Would you relax? You can't find three people instantly," Goudon pointed out.

The almost-identical Chatora twins, Goudon and Bikto, were both standing on the left side of the room, where Pooriin promptly joined them when entering. Goudon, the eldest of the family, was leaning against the wall behind himself, while Bikto, after glaring at Michiko and Pooriin as they entered with his differently coloured eyes, was pacing restlessly.

The office door opened just as Michiko reached the right side of the room; Deniizu walked in, escorted by Genma, and Korii walked in with Hayate.

"Yo," Deniizu greeted.

The green-eyed girl half-waved as she joined Michiko; welcome back, Deniizu of Konoha, formerly of the Tea Village. Michiko guessed that Deniizu had been training with Itachi, noting that she had been sweating not too long ago.

Korii nodded to the Hokage, his sensei, and Pooriin as he walked in; the black-clad 16-year-old ignored the twins disinterestedly as he joined Michiko and Deniizu. Welcome back, Hyuuga Korii of Konoha.

"Now that we are all here," Sarutobi said, putting down his pipe, "I shall explain why you have been summoned. _You,_ Team 13," he said, looking at them pointedly, "Are going to be assigned your first mission."

_Yes!_ Michiko thought, suddenly very, very interested.

_Sweet..._Deniizu thought, hoping it would be a good mission.

_Thought so,_ Korii thought, still looking perfectly calm on the outside.

"But first, some background information," the Hokage folded his hands on his desk, closed his eyes, and continued, "Are all of you aware of the Chatora family's condition at this time?"

"Do you mean the parents?" Michiko asked.

"Yes," the Hokage affirmed.

Michiko nodded, and Deniizu shrugged, but the latter had only a vague idea of what was going on, and this was the first that Korii had heard of anything.

"Please explain," Korii prompted.

"Telling an old man to explain," the Hokage sighed, "Pooriin, why don't you tell them, since you're here?"

"Ok..." Pooriin thought a moment before going on, "Remember when Itachi had been rampaging the village? Well, he attacked my parents' shop once, and it...ended up caving in."

_I knew that part,_ Deniizu thought.

_Ah. That would explain why she's staying in Denise and Michelle's apartment,_ Korii thought.

"My mom was inside the shop at the time," Pooriin continued, looking downcast, "My father was just coming home that day; he saw the shop collapse, and he knew mom was inside. He challenged Itachi, and of course Itachi didn't go easy on him. So now, both of my parents are in the hospital in critical condition, and they'll be there for a month or so."

Pooriin suddenly looked helpless, and Goudon put an arm around his little sister protectively, trying to comfort her.

_Her dad deserved it. Nobody beats Itachi,_ Deniizu thought.

"Thank you, Pooriin. Now you understand what the family is going through," Sarutobi continued, eyes still closed, "A few days ago, I received a message from the clan leader of the Chatora, that there would be a family reunion in their home village of Thyme. According to family tradition, at least one member of each separate family must be present in every reunion. Obviously, since the parents cannot go, these children must."

_We're fifteen, not children,_ the twins thought, but they kept that complaint to themselves.

"Pooriin cannot go alone; she is too young, and unfortunately has not had feasible training to protect herself," Sandaime Hokage went on, "Bikto and Goudon cannot go and leave Pooriin here by herself; I understand that she is staying with you girls, but you two would have missions to do and may end up leaving her anyway. Naturally, all three of them must leave together. In my personal opinion, an experienced chuunin and genin can easily take care of their sister on the way to a village that is about five days' travel away," the Hokage looked annoyed, "However, Koshinu, the clan leader, is adamant that the clan's prized twins arrive safely."

_Why is that Koshinu guy so worried about them?_ Deniizu asked Michiko, using her bloodline limit.

_The Inuzuka don't have twins in their clan. The Chatora clan feels superior because of this,_ Michiko explained.

_Baka clans..._Deniizu grumbled.

_Feuds are like that,_ Michiko agreed.

"In order to guarantee safety, Koshinu-sama has paid for a mid-level, B-ranked escort mission. Two teams must accompany the three Chatora siblings," the Hokage shook his head.

_He thinks that the whole thing is a waste of money to show off their twins to the Inuzuka,_ Deniizu informed Michiko and Korii.

_They probably need the protection now,_ Korii thought, _The Inuzuka probably want to beat the shit out of the twins, just to show them up._

"He has already paid, so I must go along with his wishes," Hokage-sama continued, "So...tomorrow I'm sending you three, along with another genin team."

"I hate you..." Bikto grumbled, a little too loudly.

"Shut up," Goudon snapped, kicking his brother in the shin. (A/N: Ha! I accidentally typed 'shino' as a typo! 'kicked his brother in the shino'! Ha! ...ok, I'm done.)

"As you can see, Bikto is not happy with this arrangement," the Third said, a faint smile hovering on his lips.

* * *

Gai: Yosh! Even the first chapter is ACTION PACKED!

Deniizu: ...Gai-san, almost nothing happened.

Gai: Then it was filled with YOUTH!

Korii: But...The Hokage's an old man. And Inel-sensei's like 30.

Inel: Is still much younger than when I am in other world.

A/N: Guys, what's Gai doing here?

Inel: Was it a pun?

Gai: I strongly enjoy puns! They are filled with the SPIRIT OF YOUTH!

Korii, Deniizu: ...

A/N: Um...play us an ending song, Makar!

Makar: (jumps down from thin air, pulls out violin) Prr! (Translation: Ok!)

Deniizu: Did he just say 'Prr'?

Makar: (starts playing song that makes you want to post a comment)

A/N: (hypnotizing voice) Post a comment! Post a comment! Oo!


	2. Action, Reaction

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, an understanding older brother, an over-dramatic Hokage, that black monument, flashbacks, a dysfunctional team, or a really good conversation starter. I just say, "Hi!" and then get straight to my point.

A/N: The school is _COLD_! What happened to the heaters? I'm cold! So cold! And Ruroni is laughing at me...I was built for a warm climate! ...I will post now...

* * *

"As you can see, Bikto is not happy with this arrangement," the Third said, a faint smile hovering on his lips. 

"Damn straight! We should have jounins with us! That would _really_ get to those idiot Inuzuka!" Bikto yelled, making a fist.

Goudon promptly hit him upside, hard enough to knock his brother to the floor.

"You're talking to the Hokage," Goudon reminded.

"Piss off," Bikto mumbled into the floor.

"Moving along," the Hokage acted like nothing happened, "Please keep in mind that I have not chosen you because I think that you are weak. On the contrary; I believe that if you had attended the academy for the complete six years, you girls would have still stuck at the top of the class."

_The only reason we were _at_ the top of the class, was because we had to in order to pass; not because we wanted to be,_ Deniizu thought wryly.

"Not to mention that you have very valuable assets for a chaperone mission," Sarutobi continued, "Inel, you've been quiet. Why don't you explain?"

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Inel said, inclining his head before turning to his team, "He is right; all three of you can specialize in chaperone missions. Korii, your Byakugan is the ideal for looking for hidden enemies. Deniizu, you have the incredible skill in getting rid of traps. And Michiko, you have good talent in healing jutsu, which is quite _rare_ at this young age. May I tell them about the other team?" Inel turned to the Hokage, who nodded, and he continued, "Your skills are even better with the other team. Do you know about Team 8?"

Michiko froze, eyes widening, and Deniizu blinked, but Korii is Korii, so he looked perfectly normal as he spoke for the group.

"A little..."

"Ah. You see, there is...oh! She's your cousin, Korii! Hyuuga Hinata also has Byakugan, and two eyes are better than one, so...hehehe..." Inel laughed at his own joke before continuing, "Then there is Aburame Shino, who is the prodigy of his clan, which is saying something big. Their clan is so incredible! And then there is Inuzuka Kiba-"

"I _really_ hate you," Bikto muttered, just getting up.

"You never give that clan a chance," Goudon grumbled, knocking his brother down again.

_Aniki..._Pooriin looked up at her older brother, grateful, _I haven't even told you about Kiba, and you're already so understanding..._

"Since he is Inuzuka, if his clan attacks, he might be able to talk them out of it, and if it doesn't work, he knows Inuzuka tactics the best," Inel went on, as if nothing had happened.

"That's kinda cool..." Deniizu turned to Michiko, who was still frozen, "Don't you think, Michiko?"

"A-ano..."

Michiko's jaw was still down, so Deniizu closed it and nodded her head for her with her bloodline limit.

"I trust that you accept this mission?" the Hokage asked calmly.

Team 13 nodded, with Deniizu helping Michiko yet again. The Hokage sat up straight and opened his eyes.

"Good. You are all dismissed."

The Chatora siblings left the room first, Pooriin giving Michiko a worried smile before stepping through the doorway. Inel nodded to the Hokage with a contented smile; he was glad he was finally on a new mission. Michiko shook her head to clear it, then stepped right up to the front of the Hokage's desk, with Deniizu and Korii right behind her; they all had the same question in mind.

"You...you...!" Michiko squeaked, pointing at the Hokage, then cleared her throat, "You know about Pooriin and Kiba, don't you?"

The Hokage nodded serenely, which only popped a nerve on Michiko's forehead.

"Then why...how is..." Michiko had been speaking in an extremely high voice; now she too a deep breath and spoke normally, "This doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Kiba still doesn't know about Pooriin's family. If _this_ is the way he finds out..." her voice trailed off.

Sandaime Hokage puffed a couple times on his pipe, carefully choosing words.

"How long has it been, for them? A month? That's a very long time to be keeping secrets in any relationship. Pooriin has not been able to fully trust Kiba, considering that she has not told him yet. Pooriin needs to become more secure in their relationship, and Kiba needs to find out as soon as possible. This mission obliges them to discuss Pooriin's family; it would be better now, than say...oh, perhaps I'm being over-dramatic, but better now than when Kiba persuades Pooriin to visit his family, let's say."

Michiko grimaced, then nodded reluctantly. Korii turned her by the shoulders and pushed her towards the office doors; he and Deniizu followed close behind.

"Thanks for the mission, Hokage-sama," Deniizu called over her shoulder, before she and her team turned the corner, out of Sarutobi's sight.

_Let's hope that I have made the right choice,_ Sarutobi thought, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

I hope so too, Hokage...or I will eat you...

"WHAT?" Kiba yelled.

Team 8 was in a different training field than Deniizu and Michiko used. In the field, there were three wooden logs that were secured so that they stood upright. If any of the portal-users had seen the field, they would say that it looked a lot like the one Team Kakashi had been in during their bells exercise, only without the black monument. Had Deniizu and Michiko been there, they would know that it was the field that Hinata often trained in with her team, if those flashbacks during her fight with Neji were any indication. And Kurenai had just outlined the next day's mission to her team.

"There is no way in_ hell_! No way in hell I'm escorting a _Chatora_!"

Akamaru growled and barked in agreement.

"Kiba, calm dow-" Kurenai tried to placate him, but he spoke right over her.

"No! No, I won't calm down! You know what? Because I don't give a shit about the Chatora! _I'll_ kill the Chatora _for_ any attacker, no questions asked!"

_Kiba-kun...if only you knew..._Hinata thought sadly, wringing her hands.

"Kiba, stop-" Kurenai started again.

"No! You can't make me help _any_ damn filthy Chatora!"

"Watch your tongue, Kiba," Shino warned.

"Shut the fuck up!" Kiba bellowed.

"Kiba..." this time Kurenai's expression was grave, _These kids are only 12..._

"You too! There is no way I'm escorting 3 members of the Chatora! I have no reason to, so I won't!"

"You have to; it's our first big mission," Kurenai pointed out.

"I'll skip it," Kiba growled.

"You can't be choosy about missions, Kiba," Shino rumbled.

Hinata cringed; she had only heard that tone of voice three times before. Twice was because of Kiba, the third was because of Deniizu: Shino was truly getting angry. Akamaru stopped barking, and with a whine sat close to Hinata's feet.

_Kiba, please stop,_ Hinata thought imploringly.

"To hell with the mission! All Chatora can burn there for all I care! I hate them all!"

Kiba paused, panting for breath; he had been yelling too loudly. Shino turned away and spoke, not looking at any of the group.

"You'll regret saying that," he said, quietly, yet menacingly, "Someday, someone you dearly care about will be allied to the Chatora. Then what will you do?"

"No ally of the Chatora is a friend of mine," Kiba sneered, "Anyone who joins them is trash."

Kiba saw Shino's fist clench, and suddenly realized Shino was no longer standing in front of him. Kiba smelled Shino was behind him too late; in a flash, Kiba found himself flat on his stomach, with Shino holding his face in the dirt.

"I'm sorry, Kiba, but you have to listen," Kurenai said apologetically, "Hokage-sama knows that you still need practice in controlling your emotions. If you can't think of it as a mission, pretend it's an exercise. And Shino, that's a bit much; can you please get off of Kiba?"

Kiba snorted, raising a small cloud of dust by his nose.

"What's the matter, Shino? Have the hots for some fool Chatora? Or maybe one of their trash friends?"

_That's it..._Shino thought, quite angry now.

Shino hauled Kiba up by the front of his coat; making a fist, he drew his arm back, ready to punch Kiba right in the face. But he hesitated, coming to his senses for a moment.

"Ah...so I was right," Kiba smirked, "Poor Michiko...you just did the ritual, and already you're dropping her for some Chatora slut. Or was it the Chatora slut's trash friend?"

"Kiba!" Kurenai exclaimed.

"Shino, don't! Please!" Hinata begged, thinking, _He doesn't understand what he's saying!_

Shino's jaw clenched, but after another second of hesitation, he let Kiba go and quickly walked out of the clearing, mumbling something. Kiba's sneer vanished when he heard what Shino said.

_Did he just say 'Michiko isn't trash?' ...but...Michiko doesn't know any Chatora...does she?_

Kurenai sighed and dismissed her group; she hoped that the boys would make things up by the next day.

I hope so too, sensei...or I'll eat you...

While Deniizu went to say goodbye to Itachi before the mission, Korii and Michiko had meant to train. Instead, Michiko hadn't concentrated properly, so Korii called the whole thing off. Now, Michiko sat on a tree's roots, while Korii sat on a branch abover her.

"Worried about tomorrow?" the Hyuuga asked conversationally.

"Sick," Michiko answered, almost cheerily.

"That's always good."

"...no, not really."

Michiko leaned against the tree unhappily.

"I can't do anything, Korii," she said quietly, "I promised her I wouldn't tell."

"It's not your fault," Korii chided, "It was Pooriin's choice to keep it secret; there's nothing you can do about it now."

Both were startled at the sound of footsteps approaching quickly, and turning, they saw Hinata running towards them with Shino right behind her. Michiko stood up, and Hinata immediately grabbed her in a hug.

"Hinata-chan..." Michiko started, confused, then realized that she was crying.

"Did you...hear...about the...mission?" Hinata asked brokenly.

"Oh...yeah...how did Kiba react?" Michiko asked, concerned.

The white-eyed girl recounted between sobs what had happened in the other clearing. When she was done, Michiko gave her a few tissues from the bookbag she always carried, and there was an awkward silence interrupted only by Hinata blowing her nose. Shino, who leaned on the tree Korii was sitting in, noticed the way Korii looked at him, and the way Michiko was avoiding to.

"I'm not proud of what I did," Shino said sulkily, "But something had to be done."

"We know," Korii acknowledged, before smoothly jumping down from the tree, "I'll walk you home, Hinata."

"Ok..."

The girl still looked downcast, and Michiko lifted her chin so that Hinata had to look at her.

"It'll be fine. We're all going to do our best to make things right," Michiko reassured.

"...ok..." Hinata smiled gratefully, and she followed Korii out of the field.

Michiko smiled and waved as they left, then turned around to face Shino.

"Mission tomorrow," she said softly, suddenly shy.

"Yes."

Michiko pretended to be busy looking for something in her bag, while trying to think of another conversation starter. When she looked up again, Shino was standing right in front of her. From the way his head was slightly tilted, and the subtle way he was chewing on the inside of his cheek, she guessed that he wanted to ask something.

"What is it?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

By way of answering, Shino held both his hands out, palms up, as if asking her to give him something. Confused, Michiko did the same, and Shino tenderly took her right hand and looked at the wrist. Silently, he touched the hole there for a moment.

"You're not trash..." Shino whispered in an extremely gentle voice, surprising Michiko, "You're not..."

* * *

A/N: I like my fluff. Don't diss my fluff. ...I've been reading too much Fruits Basket.

Hatori: Don't mind her. Just review.

A/N: OMIGOSH, IT'S HATORI!

Ayame: And it's is I, Sohma Ayame! And-

Korii: (Runs in) Gah...that anime...! (Knocks out Ayame)

Ayame: I am slain! (falls over, unconscious)

Hatori: (Nods to Korii) Thanks.

Korii: Don't mention it.

A/N: ...Where are all these random people coming from? I'm so confused...

Makar: Prr! (Translation: Don't mind the randomness! Just review!)


	3. Mission Day 1: Departure

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, any ideas affiliated, any cultures affiliated, any real-live people affiliated, pretty much anything that is affiliated to Naruto, except for these fanfics. In short, Masashi Kishimoto pwnz m3. bcuz h3 15 1337! ...I also do not own hacker speech or '1337'. Oh, and I don't own Nine Inch Nails (NIN) or any of their songs.

* * *

Kiba and Shino still weren't talking to each other. Kiba was going to do the mission, but he and Akamaru were also going to be very irritable. So, of course tension was quite palpable at the village gate when Team 13 arrived.

Shino and Kiba wouldn't look at each other, and stood at the opposite sides of the road. Hinata stood with Kurenai in the middle, nervously fiddling with her backpack's strap. Akamaru seemed very confused; he agreed with Kiba, but he also didn't understand why his best friend was standing separated from his childhood playmates. Akamaru would run from Kiba to paw at Hinata's leg, then he'd run and quickly sniff Shino's shoes, then he'd run back to Kiba and sit for a moment until the cycle started all over again. But of course, once Team 13 arrived, the cycle was broken: now Akamaru had four comrades to wrestle with.

Akamaru greeted first Inel, then Korii, then Deniizu, and finally met Michiko with his best sad puppy eyes. With the Four Musketeers to back him up, Michiko didn't have a chance.

"Fine," Michiko grinned, patting each dog on the head, "You're off duty until we go past those gates, ok?"

D'Artagnan spoke for the group when he jumped up to plant a slobbery kiss on Michiko's cheek, and then there was a dusty cloud and the dogs were gone.

"Did you teach him that?" Inel asked curiously.

"He has a mind of his own," Michiko answered, half-smiling as she wiped drool from her face.

Deniizu, in her Tenten-like, grey clothing, had a backpack on to carry her things for the trip, while Michiko had her bookbag, as well as what looked like a green, woolen obi with pouches on it around her waist. Korii had a very forlorn-looking backpack swung over one shoulder and a curved sword on his belt, and Inel also had a bookbag, since he had his violin strapped onto his back as usual.

"What's with the obi?" Kiba asked bluntly, looking at Michiko, "It's got pouches and things on it."

"Is it for medicines and bandages, like a first aid kit?" Hinata guessed.

"Yeah," Michiko grinned, making a peace sign with her right hand and patting the sash with her left, "I thought about using a vest, but that would make me look like a chuunin, and that's like bragging."

"It would look weird, anyway. Who wears a vest and a skirt?" Deniizu shrugged.

_She's so ready to become a medical ninja,_ Shino thought fondly.

"...Korii nii-chan, your backpack..." Hinata started.

"Yeah, about that," Korii touched his forehead protector, which he did when he was embarassed (for Korii) or nervous (again, for Korii), "I sometimes had to use it as a defense or weapon."

The black backpack was in poor shape; the strap which he wasn't using was snapped, and the strap that he _was_ using had been tied back together again. The zippers no longer worked; they were precariously tied together, and anybody could see what Korii had inside.

"Don't you want a new one?" Kurenai asked, astounded.

"I ask him the question all the time, but he no listen," Inel said, putting his hands up to the side, palms up, with a 'what-can-you-do' expression.

"That's Korii for you," Michiko said, she and Deniizu grinning.

Inel walked straight to Kurenai to discuss the mission, and as Team 13 walked over to the side of the gate that Shino was at, Hinata joined them.

"How's Kiba doing?" Deniizu asked in a low voice.

Shino's jaw clenched and looked even more serious than usual. The others sweatdropped when they saw him, and turned to Hinata. The white-eyed girl sighed.

"Kiba's only doing the mission because Kurenai-sensei's making him," Hinata explained, "He's still upset, though, since it's the Chatora clan that we're helping. He couldn't even tell his mom or sister about this mission's objective; Kurenai-sensei had to tell them that it was survival training. And he and Shino still haven't made up about yesterday."

After glancing at Kiba, who was staring at the ground and muttering to himself, the group turned back to Shino. The bug-user crossed his arms and remained adamant; obviously, he would not be apologizing to his best friend any time soon.

"You're such kids," Michiko chided, shaking her head and walking towards Kiba.

_Am not,_ Shino thought childishly, then realized the truth of Michiko's statement, _Why does she have to be right?_

"You sure you're not going to talk to him?" Deniizu asked while adjusting her backpack's straps.

"Because you really should. Any mission needs cooperation within the team," Korii added, and Hinata looked pleadingly at Shino, but the boy still wouldn't move.

By now, Michiko had reached Kiba. She could hear snatches of phrases like "damn Chatora" and "I hate cats" as he grumbled away. After looking at him thoughtfully for a moment, she decided that maybe humour would be the best way to get to him.

"You know, you look crazy talking to yourself like that," she said, a half-smile on her face.

Kiba looked up at her dully; he wasn't in a very good mood.

"What?" Michiko raised an eyebrow, "Are you going to yell at me? Or are you just going to act insane again?"

Kiba stared for a moment longer, then cracked a small grin.

"That's better; that's the Kiba we know and love," Michiko smiled, "Now tell me what's on your mind."

Kiba sighed, nodded, took a deep breath, and began.

"I really don't want to do this mission. The Third's making me escort Chatora..." anger rose in his voice, but he paused, shook his head, and continued calmly, "You know about the rivalry between my clan and theirs. I just...I hate them so much, and now...and I couldn't say goodbye to Pooriin either...I couldn't talk to my mom or Hana...And Shino! Shino's being such a...I can't...It's just..." Kiba scratched his head irritably, then sighed, resigned, and looked at Michiko sadly, "Help me get through this mission? Please?"

"What're teammates and friends for?" Michiko asked by way of answering, giving her almost-relative a hug.

"Right. Right," Kiba laughed, then suddenly sniffed and froze, "They're here...I smell four cats," Kiba growled.

"Easy boy," Michiko warned, then gave a quick whistle for her dogs as Kiba called for Akamaru.

The five dogs came a-running, and Michiko put a hand on Kiba's shoulder, hoping that she could keep him from charging if one of the twins made a mean joke about dogs. She also hoped that Kiba would take the restraining hand as a reminder to be careful. But there was no need; Kiba had noticed the girl that was walking with her twin brothers down the road.

"No..." Kiba whispered, as the three Chatora clan members reached their chaperones.

"Team 8, Team 13," Kurenai said in a clear voice, "I'd like you all to meet Chatora Goudon, Bitko, and-"

"Pooriin," Kiba whispered with his sensei's introduction, "...Pooriin is a Chatora..."

Cue 'Sadness and Sorrow' from the Naruto Original Soundtrack! ...Do it...

Shino, Hinata, Deniizu and Korii all looked over at Michiko and Kiba on the other side of the street. And promptly looked back at the three Chatora; the look on Kiba's face was not exactly...joyful.

_Kiba-kun..._Michiko thought, _I'm so sorry, Kiba-kun...but Hokage-sama thought this was the best way._

_Don't look at me like that!_ Pooriin thought, seeing the look in Kiba's eyes.

Kiba didn't know what to think; he should hate her, or be sad, or at least shocked, but he felt numb. Numb and freefalling in a sickening way.

_This does not bode well,_ Korii thought sagely.

_Hm. I should've shaved this morning, _Goudon was thinking, and Deniizu sweatdropped when hearing his thought. (A/N: Stop music here.)

"Um...hi guys," Pooriin said in a small voice as she waved.

Hinata started to wave back, then noticed that doing so probably wasn't the best idea, and played with her fingers instead. A few awkward moments passed, then D'Artagnan and Akamaru ran up to Pooriin and sniffed her knees by way of greeting her.

"Hey," Pooriin greeted them, stooping down to pet them.

"_Dogs,_" Bikto muttered, annoyed, "What can you see in them?"

"Give it up, bro," Goudon warned in a low tone.

"Good morning, my name is Yuuhi Kurenai, and this is my collegue, Satoki Inel," Kurenai introduced, shaking each of the Chatora members' hands, "We and our teams will be escorting you three."

"Yeah, we figured as much," Bikto said caustically, rolling his eyes.

Pooriin adjusted her backpack's straps timidly as she quietly stood by her brothers. Goudon stood between her and Bikto; he was wearing an unneccesarily huge backpack, and had one of his cat companions (an albino Persian) perched on his shoulders. His other companion (a red tabby) was walking beside him on the ground. Bikto, who also wore a backpack, carried his one of his companions, a black Manx cat (no tail) with one white ear, and the other cat (a silver tabby) walked right beside Goudon's.

"Can we go now?" Bikto asked, annoyed, after another awkward 30 seconds had passed.

"Um..."

Kurenai was confused; everyone was being so quiet all of a sudden. Inel decided to step forward so that she could sort herself out.

"We will in a moment, Chatora-san," the former sound-nin said, "But first our team needs to discuss the logistics in our formation. Korii," Inel turned to the side where most of the genins were, "Could you and Shino please come forward? Both of you are co-leaders, so both of you, go _lead_."

Korii motioned for the three Chatora, Kiba, Michiko, and the five dogs to come closer so they could hear better, and when they did, he started speaking.

"Ok, you heard Inel-sensei; Shino and I are leading this group," he said, half-boredly, half-firmly, "If there are any problems, just come talk to Shino and me. ...what is it, Bikto?"

"I have a complaint."

"What is it, Bikto?" Korii asked tiredly.

"I hate you all."

A couple seconds later...

"Moving right along," Korii continued, ignoring Bikto who was now nursing a huge lump on his head.

"Korii, you can't do that!" Michiko exclaimed, trying to get a good look at Bikto's head so she could help.

"And why can't I?" Korii asked mock indignantly as Deniizu tried to suppress laughter.

"H-he's the client!" Hinata stammered, still shocked at what her cousin had just done.

"I have learned over the years that there are some exceptions to the 'Don't hurt the client' rule," Korii said calmly, "Make a note of that Shino; you'll be leading your own group soon."

Shino shrugged and Korii continued.

"As I was saying...yeah. Shino and I are leading you guys. There's a specific formation that I think would be best for our small parade," Korii said, taking out a scroll that he had in his backpack, and began reading it, "'Let me penetrate you' oh, sorry, wrong scroll. Give me a minute..."

Most of the group sweatdropped as Korii went rummaging into his backpack while Inel and Deniizu laughed to themselves, both thinking, _That's classic Korii for you._

"Here it is," Korii finally said, and unrolled the scroll so that all the group could see, "In the middle, obviously, is the three Chatora. Pooriin, I'm sorry, but since you're the only one with almost no training, you get to be in the exact middle, which should be the safest place in the group."

_I'll try not to feel hurt,_ Pooriin thought as she nodded.

"Goudon, you stay to her right, and Bikto, you stay to her left. Arrange the cats in whatever way you think is best for feng shui or whatever shit you care about; just keep them out of the way. Inel-sensei will be the furthest to the right, and Kurenai-san will be the furthest to the left; they'll be the ones doing the real guarding. You two twins don't really have to protect anybody, but a good ninja never gets caught off guard, so remember that. We may be escorting you, but you're still shinobi.

"I've placed Deniizu in the front, and I'll be right behind and covering her; Byakugan helps me look for anything big that might attack, while she looks for specifics like traps that need to be cleaned up. Shino will be right behind me; as co-leader, he needs to be close by to direct whoever's behind with hand signals. Then it's the group with Pooriin and all the other people with her, and Michiko is directly behind; the medical ninja also needs to be protected, and she also needs to be close to the clients in case they need to be healed.

"Then there's Kiba, with Akamaru as his backup, to help take care of Hinata, who will scout out with her Byakugan for anybody who'll ambush us from behind. Michiko, I also want you to choose two of your dogs to guard Shino, and save two for yourself. That way, nobody is left without backup. Does everybody understand?"

Korii rolled up the scroll and replaced it in his backpack, and everyone nodded.

"Got it," Deniizu answered as the other five genins nodded.

"...but it sounds so stupid," Kiba said after a moment, "All this fuss for three people, two of which are already ninjas."

"I guess _our_ clan leader actually cares about his clan members," Bikto jibed.

"Are you saying that ours doesn't?" Kiba growled, suddenly angry again.

"Boys, break it up," Inel said commandingly, before either of them could say another word, "We have to travel together, so let's try to get along, yes?"

Kiba and Bikto glared at each other for a moment, and instead of answering, both merely walked to opposite sides of the street and waited impatiently to leave.

"Ok, guys, let's move out," Korii said, marching towards the gate with Deniizu.

None of the group, other than the two sensei, moved until Korii turned around and glared at them all.

_It's going to be a long trip,_ Kurenai thought, already stressed.

* * *

A/N: Hm...to arrange cats in a way that is feng shui. Is that even possible?

Kiba: I don't care. I hate cats. (starts mumbling to self)

Michiko: You're looking crazy again.

Kiba: Shut up! (looks at reader) Hey, what're YOU staring at?

A/N: Um, he didn't mean that! He just wants you to review!

Kiba: No, I want them to stop staring at me!

A/N: (laughs nervously) J-just review! There's no rabid dog-user here!

Kiba: _WHAT_?

A/N: Meep! (runs away)


	4. Mission Day 1: Soup

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the 'Are we there yet' game (much fun. Very annoying.), being annoyed, calm chi, '_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH'_, a firepit (though, now would be nice, because this school is frigid), family ties, but I do own the fact that Bikto is a jerk. There. I said it. That felt good...

A/N: I will now be updating every other school day, starting today, with two chapters each. Why? Because now I have a way to procrastinate working on homework during my spare: I'll just work on posting! The only problem is, the story will go up much, much faster. ...oh well! Makar and Nabooru are on my side!

* * *

"Are we there yet?" 

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

Sigh. "No."

Korii rubbed the bridge of his nose irritably. Bikto and Michiko had been going on like this for about two hours. It wasn't even lunch, and already he wanted to kill something.

"Are we there yet?" Bikto asked again, knowing full well what the answer was.

"_Let me hit him. Just once! Please?_" Kiba whispered to Michiko and Deniizu thought to Korii.

"No. Focus on your duty in the mission," came both of the answers.

"Screw this mission; that Chatora bastard has it coming," Kiba whined, along with Akamaru.

Michiko shared a look with Aramis, who was walking beside her.

"You can deal with Porthos' antics, which are five times worse than this, but you can't deal with him?" Michiko asked, she and Pooriin grinning.

"Damn Chatora," Kiba grumbled, wiping the smiles off of both the girls' faces.

"Keep in mind what I said earlier, Kiba," Kurenai said from her place beside Bikto, "Treat it as emotional training."

_Emotional training starting at level 25_, Deniizu thought, but kept the thought to herself.

There was a miraculous 43 seconds of complete silence aside from footsteps and dogs sniffing the terrain, and then...

"Are we there yet?" Bikto asked, smirking.

"No," Michiko answered, thinking, _I must have patience. A good medical ninja has patience. Calm your chi...why is Bikto such a jerk? No, no. Calm your chi._

"Are we there yet?"

"No," Michiko answered, once again calm.

"Why do you keep answering him?" Goudon asked Michiko, and Pooriin glanced back to show that she wanted to know too.

"You heard earlier. I didn't answer, and he kept asking over and over again in louder voices until I did," Michiko shrugged.

"I admire your patience," Goudon said sincerely, and his white cat gave her a look that said she agreed.

Michiko smiled weakly, but she believed she wouldn't last before lunch. Inel glanced at her in the corner of his eye before looking into the trees again; he knew Michelle, and Michelle didn't have perfect calm.

"Are we there yet?"

_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! "_No."

Approximately 45 minutes later...

"Are we there yet?"

Bikto knew he was winning; Michiko's voice had been starting to shake each time she answered.

"N-no..." Michiko whispered, desperately trying to calm down.

_Relax. Linda from back home is much worse than this,_ Michiko thought to herself.

"Are we there yet?"

"No," she answered, this time in a firm tone.

"Are we-"

"No."

_Uh-oh..._Korii thought, _The end is near; she's interrupting him._

Bikto chuckled maliciously to himself before asking again.

"Are we there yet?"

"No!" Michiko looked completely livid, then she smoothed her features, "No, we are not there yet."

_Michelle, stop,_ Deniizu thought into her friend's head, _If you pop, you lose all the respect that you got from Kurenai. Inel-sensei will understand, we as your friends will understand, Goudon will understand, Bikto won't care, but if you lose your temper now, you will no longer be on Kurenai's good side._

_...Thanks, that helped,_ Michiko thought, totally serene now.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Bikto blinked; he thought he had made some headway. What happened?

_Good,_ Kurenai thought, _Kiba is only staying in line because Michiko is. We may be able to last until lunch. Just 10 more minutes, Kiba._

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

_How can you do that?_ Kiba wondered, completely seething inside, _I'd have slugged him two hours ago._

"Aniki," Pooriin whispered to Goudon, "My feet hurt. When do we stop?"

"How much longer do we have, Shino?" Goudon asked.

"Just a few more minutes," Shino deadpanned.

"How many exactly?" Goudon probed.

"Eight minutes and 43 seconds," Shino answered after glancing at his watch.

"Ok..." Pooriin said, trying not to think about her feet.

_Can't we stop early?_ Kiba thought, knowing by overhearing that Pooriin's feet hurt, then shook his head, _Of course not. The Chatora can keep going another eight minutes. ...why can't I be mad at her?_

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

The next 8 minutes and something seconds passed without any more event, other than Bikto's repeating, inane question. Finally, Korii called for a halt. Keeping Deniizu in the front, he led the group off the path to a clearing that had just enough room for all of them to sit around the firepit that was in the center of a square of logs. Kiba and the dogs could hear a stream running in the forest that was just to the west of the clearing.

"This is a nice place," Michiko commented, looking around, "Very convenient."

"My old team did a lot of long-range missions for about four years," Korii explained, "So I know where some of the good resting places are in this country."

"Cool," Deniizu nodded, "Are we allowed to get out of formation now?"

Korii nodded, and the five genins sighed in relief.

"Thank you," Michiko breathed, slouching and running to the edge of the firepit before first falling onto her knees, then flopping onto her stomach.

"Are you that tired?" Korii asked, dropping his backpack unhurriedly and sitting on a log.

"It's the 'are we there yet'," Michiko mumbled into the grass, "I loathe the 'are we there yet'..."

"You're so weird," Pooriin teased, laughingly.

Michiko and Hinata laughed with her, while Deniizu and Korii smiled (we don't know about Shino...it's that collar...), but Kiba left silently to get water from the river so Michiko could cook. He wanted to smile, but...

"Chatora," he whispered vehemently to Akamaru, who was following him, "How can she be a Chatora?"

Lookit me, I'm Kiba! I'm angsty! Like an angsty hobbit! ...don't question it...

"Wow!" Bikto exclaimed, first tasting the soup Michiko had made.

Michiko, Hinata, Kiba and Pooriin looked up expectantly. Could it be that he was going to say something positive for a change?

"What?" Deniizu asked, still eating.

"This soup!" Bikto answered enthusiastically.

The abovesaid four leaned forward, as Bikto chose his words carefully. The rest of the group stayed focused on their own bowls; they knew what was coming.

"...Yeah?" Michiko prompted.

"This soup...it _sucks_," Bikto said, narrowing his eyes.

The four friends watched as the wild-eyed 15-year-old slowly emptied his bowl onto the ground beside him; Kiba was seething, Pooriin looked annoyed, and Michiko and Hinata both looked downcast.

"That was uncalled for, Bikto," Goudon said in an annoyed tone.

His brother merely ignored him and held out his bowl towards Michiko as Porthos and the red tabby sniffed the now-wasted food in the grass.

"More, please," Bikto said calmly.

Michiko's eye twitched, then she smoothed her features, stood up, and serenely walked away from the group towards the river.

"Don't eat that, Porthos," she said over her shoulder, "That _slime_ over there touched it."

Porthos growled at the food, then he and his brothers went to join Michiko. Goudon and the red tabby looked at each other, then both followed after the dogs.

"Hey, aren't you going to stay with me?" Bikto called to his brother's retreating back, "What happened to family ties?"

Then Pooriin did something amazing.

"Yeah, what happened to family ties?" Pooriin asked, in a fierce tone of voice that surprised all present.

Michiko and Goudon turned just fast enough to see Pooriin jump up, march over to Bikto, and slam her bowl upside-down onto his head hard enough for them to hear a loud 'THUNK'. Akamaru and D'Artagnan whined and covered their faces with one paw, as Kiba's jaw dropped open. Deniizu half-choked on a bit of potato, and Shino froze with his spoon halfway to his mouth. Hinata slowly covered her mouth with one hand, as Inel dropped his spoon and Kurenai only stared. Goudon slowly raised his arm and pointed at his brother, stunned, and Michiko didn't realize that Aramis and Athos were now eating out of her bowl; she was frozen on the spot.

"You're a jerk!" Pooriin yelled into his face, as soup dribbled down after going through his hair.

Korii was the only one who seemed unaffected by this turn of events.

"...I think that's enough break time," the teen Hyuuga said after a moment, calmly getting up with his eyes closed, "Ok, everybody, pack up," he opened his eyes and looked at Bikto, as if seeing his state for the first time, "Bikto, get that off your head. You look ridiculous."

The rest of that day, Bikto stayed silent.

* * *

A/N: Bikto is a jerk. He must die. 

Pooriin: _Does_ he die?

A/N: ...I can't tell you that.

Pooriin: (disappointed) Aw...

A/N: ...um...isn't he your brother? Shouldn't you _not_ want him to die?

Pooriin: (shifty eyes) Oh yeah...

A/N: (edges away from Pooriin) Um...please review! Oh! And Ruroni has something to say!

Ruroni: YO review or I kill you.MWAHAHAHA.

Esperwen: ..._that's_ not what you said you'd say.

Ruroni: Oh ya. K...so here's the thing.I want to know who made the more popular characters.So I want you guys to vote,in your review,for who you think is the coolest OC.

Esperwen: Eh...I don't like 'OC'. Say 'Original Character'.

Ruroni: Fine.Original charater.

Esperwen: So...yeah! Please review!


	5. Mission Day 2: Attack

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, a wolf pack (though Corey owns a wolf/husky mix), various other things...I'm too lazy to think up more stuff...

A/N: You know what? I change my mind. The chapters are only going up one at a time. I don't want the story to end so quickly.

* * *

A wolf pack was on the prowl. 

Slinking silently in a serpentine state on the ground, the wolves were stalking their prey stealthily. Mere inches away from..._it_, the wolves knew that now; _now_ was the time to pounce. Crouching for proper spring, the wolves waited a moment, testing the winds and ensuring complete synchronization, and finally, they struck!

"AAAAAAACK!"

Michiko's piercing scream rang throughout the small field, waking almost everybody up from their first night's rest.

"What is it?" Korii asked, jumping up from his mat, already with a kunai in his hand.

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked, sitting up, and then looking around, "Where's Akamaru?"

"Where is Michiko?" Inel asked pointedly, looking at Michiko's sleeping mat.

Deniizu and Pooriin rolled over from their sleeping places beside Michiko, and both started laughing. Michiko had been simultateously tackled by all five of the dogs at once; now she couldn't be seen under all of their bodies.

_Why me?_ Michiko thought to herself, struggling to get the dogs off and sit up, "Um...A little help here, please?"

At this moment, Kurenai and Shino ran into the clearing; they had been on the last guard duty shift for their camp.

"Is something wrong?" Kurenai asked, concerned, "I heard a scream."

"No, we're ok," Deniizu waved the matter off, and Pooriin turned to the mat that was at her other side.

"Hinata?" Pooriin shook the still-sleeping girl's shoulder gently, "Hey, Hinata?"

"She's still asleep?" Goudon asked, surprised.

"She's a heavy sleeper," Pooriin nodded, still trying to awaken her friend.

"So's your ugly brother," Kiba muttered to himself, but a little too loudly.

"Hey, he is!" Goudon observed, looking at the teen who was asleep beside him, "Who wants to wake him up?"

His question was met with silence, that went uninterrupted until Michiko finally sat up, holding Athos, who had been sitting on her face. At the same time, Pooriin managed to wake Hinata up.

"Thanks for all the help, guys," Michiko said sarcastically.

"Stop complaining, just get your stuff packed," Korii ordered calmly, his mat and backpack already prepared for travel.

Do you ever notice how on TV, one second the place is a mess, and then the next second the place is completely tidy?

Because that's what Korii did.

Once again, the group of eleven was on the move in their set formation. Well, almost eleven.

"How long have we been walking?" Michiko asked Kiba in a low voice.

The quasi-medical ninja had to ask her question again; the boy walking behind her had been staring into space, completely zoned out.

"Um...not too long," Kiba answered, scratching the back of his head, "Maybe two hours."

"He should be coming soon, then," Goudon said, still walking in front of both of them.

Deniizu, Korii and their sensei all smiled to themselves, and Kurenai shook her head disappointedly.

"I can't believe a jounin with your reputation would be doing this," the red-eyed woman scolded, talking over Pooriin and Goudon to Inel.

"I have a wonderful reputation?" Inel asked interestedly.

"Never mind," Kurenai sighed.

Shino shook his head in agreement with his sensei; after all-

"_You're not supposed to abandon the client!_" an irate voice exclaimed from behind them on the road.

"There's the Chatora freak," Kiba growled, with a big toothy grin.

Bikto ran up the dirt road, his hair still uncombed and his cats close behind him; apparently he ran after the group as soon as he woke up.

"You caught up!" Korii said enthusiastically, barely turning to look at Bikto.

"You...you..." Bikto struggled to speak as he walked beside Korii, trying to put together a proper sentence.

"Go on," Korii prompted, wiping a little bit of spit from his cheek that Bikto had sprayed there.

"You..." Bikto paused for a moment, then lowered his voice maliciously, "I'm reporting your negligence to the Hokage and my uncle, Koshinu."

"How nice," Korii said uncaringly, "You'll tell them that you purposely stepped out of your place in our travel formation in order to deliberately get hurt, am I correct? Because that's what you're doing now."

Bikto stared at the Hyuuga for a moment, who still wasn't bothering to turn and look at him, then with a wordless scream of frustration, he went back to his position between Pooriin and Inel.

"Nice of you to join us," Goudon said sarcastically.

"Shut up," Bikto griped, throwing an angry look at his brother.

Michiko and Pooriin giggled, then immediately stopped when Bikto turned his gaze to them. Hinata, who was constantly scanning the trail behind the group, winced when she heard blows being thrown.

"Ow..." Kiba muttered quietly, when Bikto was done.

He had jumped out of his position to stand between Bikto and Pooriin, taking the punches that Bikto had meant to deal out to his little sister.

"Hey, are you ok?" Pooriin asked, concerned, as Kiba moved back to his place and Michiko nursed a few bruises.

"Enh..." Kiba grunted by way of answering.

"You didn't have to do that," Pooriin said gently, "I would've been fine."

"You're the client," Kiba snapped, "If your idiot uncle sees you bruised, he'll blame us ninjas."

"Oh," Pooriin said, looking forwards again.

_Hey, _I_ got hit too,_ Michiko thought, _Is there no sympathy for me?_

_'Fraid not,_ Deniizu answered wryly.

_Thanks..._Michiko thought, _Today is not my day..._

She looked down at D'Artagnan, who was growling at the silver tabby walking by Bikto's feet, and clicked her tongue to get his attention.

"Leave them, D'Artagnan," she advised, "We can wait until after this mission is over. Then we'll have some fun."

"Everyone stop," Korii ordered suddenly, and everyone came to a halt, "Deniizu, Inel-sensei, come with me. Team Kurenai, Michiko, you stay and guard the Chatora."

Inel and his two students stepped out of formation and walked ahead down the path.

"What did you see?" Inel asked, taking his violin off of its strap and tuning it quietly.

"I saw someone setting a trap right about..." Korii motioned for Inel to stop and Deniizu to follow close behind, then after walking forwards a couple more yards, deliberately threw a kunai into a tree on the left side of the path, "There! Deniizu, do that thing that you do!"

"Ossu!"

The talented genin saluted, then pulled out two kunai and stood poised, waiting for the trap to hit them. Inel knew that some traps took time, and waited patiently for it to hit. Michiko, standing by Pooriin with a kunai at the ready, got an itching sensation that something was getting more and more wrong, slowly and steadily. Ten seconds passed, with no event. Pooriin felt her heart rate change and become erratic; _I must be getting nervous,_ she thought.

"Good," a stranger hidden in the trees whispered to his companions, "They're falling right into it. Soon we will know..."

Shino's brow furrowed deeper than normal, thinking _What's taking Korii?_

Kiba and the five dogs sniffed the air suddenly; they smelled something in the air change, but they weren't sure what. Hinata and Michiko noticed and they both shared a look. Something was up, but twenty more seconds passed, and nothing happened.

_Maybe it's a timed trap to lull us into a false sense of security,_ Deniizu thought, her body still tense and ready to destroy any obstacles.

"...That's strange," Korii muttered after a moment.

Michiko felt the part of her blood that was fire rise to meet its kin; her pupils contracted, as if she were about to become fire. She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know exactly what. Pooriin felt her eyes tighten, but then the feeling passed, and she didn't remember it happening. Inel remembered a mission from back when he was in Oto, and knew what was going on.

"I could have sworn I saw-" Korii was saying.

"Korii, get Deniizu and jump far back behind me," Inel interrupted in a brisk voice, "Quickly!"

Korii grabbed Deniizu around the waist and used chakra to propel himself so that they jumped and landed just behind Inel. The former Sound nin knew they had to go farther and pushed both of them backwards.

"Inel-sensei, what-" Korii started.

Again, Korii was cut off, and all the group saw what Inel had discovered. The trap that had been set was not made from weapons or simple fireballs. Instead, whoever had made it had used some kind of high quality jutsu to create two horizontal pillars of fire, both going from one tree towards the middle of the road, creating what would have looked like an eight-foot-tall wall of fire. Korii and Deniizu would have been right in the centre of it, while Inel's little mustache would have been singed. Now, Team 13 was a good 6 feet away from the wall of fire, but they could still feel the heat; Michiko half screamed, half yelped when she had seen it.

"Oh, Korii, my hero," Deniizu gasped, swooning in his arms.

"No need to thank me," Korii said.

"Oh, you're so heroic!" Deniizu gushed, gazing deeply into Korii's white eyes, and prompty fainting in sheer bliss.

"Um...Korii, put me down," Deniizu said.

"Eh, what?" Korii shook his head, clearing it of his daydream, "Oh, right..."

Korii realized he was still holding Deniizu bridal-style and gently set her on the ground. There was an awkward pause, then Korii turned to his sensei.

"What do we do about the big fire?" Korii asked, gesturing towards it.

"It's a good technique," Inel said thoughtfully, "But once the papers are ripped up, it should stop. Michiko, it would be safest if you did that."

_So that's what I sensed,_ Michiko thought as she nodded, already walking towards the fire.

Turning into flame was simple for Michiko; her team knew that fire was the easiest element for her to become. Fire-Michiko stopped just in front of the wall of fire and tested it with one hand, checking to make sure that it was not simply some genjutsu but a real fire, which it was. Michiko then made a shadow clone of herself and both easily found each trap tag. They were only about a hand wide, but went about 8 feet along the side of the trees; there was one on each side of the road. Inel had been right; as soon as the seals were removed, the fire stopped. All of Team 8, 13, and their clients watched as Michiko and her clone carefully moved away from where the second flamethrowing seal had been, and transformed back into human at a safe distance from her group. Hinata had her Byakugan still activated, and she saw movement behind the group as Michiko returned.

"Korii, Shino, three people behind us!" Hinata exclaimed, already turning around.

The two leaders turned around, and both saw that Hinata was right. There were three teenaged bandits standing on the road behind them.

"Michiko, Kiba, you, your clone and your dogs stay around our clients," Korii ordered, re-activating his Byakugan, "Kurenai-san, I'd like you to watch the road ahead. Deniizu, you keep your eyes on the surrounding woods in case someone else jumps out. Inel-sensei, yours is the one on the left," Korii instructed, meaning a boy in a long, brown coat who seemed the strongest, "Hinata and Shino, you take the one on the right," he said, meaning a slender girl with shoulder-length, straight brown hair, adding, "The one in the middle is mine," referring to a boy wearing a strange backpack made of glass jars on his back.

"Hinata, I'll charge her," Shino whispered as he and Hinata hurried forward, "It'll startle her, and you attack right away with Juuken."

"O-ok," Hinata nodded, sounding afraid but determined as she prepared her hands for the Hyuuga's deadly fighting style.

Shino sped up and rushed the girl on the left side of the road, waiting for the last moment, and suddenly he summoned all of the bugs in his arms to abruptly create a cloud of beetles that rushed towards the brown-haired girl's face.

"Aw, like _gross!_" the girl exclaimed, throwing something down in front of her.

_What the...? Bandits talk like _that? Shino thought, still willing his kikaichu forwards.

The girl jumped up high, and actually vaulted over Shino's head. After landing softly on the ground behind him, the girl ran straight towards Hinata, with a strangely shaped, green-hilted dagger held before her. Hinata froze where she stood; the other girl was still running with her dagger pointed towards Hinata's stomach.

_Move! Move!_ both Hinata and Shino were thinking,_ Do something! Attack!_

_Kamisama, she's not moving!_ Shino thought, fulling turning where he stood and about to jump in and help.

_I...I can't...I'm going to die!_ Hinata thought, her hands trembling.

"Psych!" the brown-haired girl yelled, again throwing something at her feet and jumping easily over Hinata the way she had with Shino.

_The hell?_ Shino thought, surprised again, _Bandits aren't supposed to talk like that! Uh oh..._

"Michiko, she's headed for you!" Shino yelled, as Hinata fell to her knees in relief.

"I'm not blind!" Michiko yelled back, gripping her kunai hard and keeping her eyes on the brown-haired girl.

_She used _water_ to jump,_ Michiko thought, _She threw a water balloon or something onto the ground, and she made the water in the puddle propel her up, like how I used chakra...if she's after the Chatora, she'll either jump over me, or make me jump, and then go underneath..._

"You go down," Michiko directed her clone, as she herself jumped up to block the girl.

"Tch, whatever," the girl tsked, attacking Michiko's clone so that it disappeared, "You _totally _can't beat me with, like, _that_," she said, brandishing her dagger as if about to stab Pooriin.

"Oh no!" Pooriin whimpered, putting up her hands in a vague attempt to shield herself.

"I _hate_ people that talk like valley girls!" Kiba growled, launching himself at the girl with the dagger.

The stranger neatly sidestepped and managed to evade Kiba, but Akamaru jumped at her face and managed to knock her off-balance. The girl made a muffled sound as she stumbled backwards.

"Porthos!"

Michiko made a hand motion, and her mottled pup tripped the girl neatly. Another hand motion, and D'Artagnan and Aramis secured the girl's shoulders to the ground, and Akamaru jumped back onto the girl's chest and growled into her face.

"Good job, guys," Michiko praised, patting Porthos on the head.

"Who are you, and what are you trying to do?" Kiba asked, looking down at the girl.

The girl merely smirked and there was a puff of smoke; when it cleared, she was gone, and a straw dummy was in her place.

"Substitution," Kiba and Michiko muttered, both already looking around.

"Ok, like, whatever you do, don't look here. Teehee!"

Both ninjas turned and saw the girl had grabbed Bikto and held her dagger at his throat.

"Oh, fine, look," the girl rolled her eyes, "But don't move!" she added, waving a finger teasingly, "Otherwise, this boy goes bye-bye."

The Manx cat that Bikto usually carried and the silver tabby attacked the girl's leg.

"OW!" the girl shrieked, "Ok, that's no fun!"

The girl let Bikto go, and after spinning on the spot, she grabbed Goudon's hand and neck at pressure points, so the boy was forced to go where she directed him. They moved fast, and were almost at the woods when Kurenai threw a shuriken that grazed the girl's cheek as she dodged it.

"Yowch!" the girl exclaimed, clapping a hand on the bleeding scratch, "Ok, like, _no!_ Forget this!"

The girl threw another waterballoon onto the ground, and again used it to give herself a boost into the forest, and she was gone before Kurenai could reach her.

"Ok, those hurt," Goudon complained, just as Kurenai got to where he stood. He was wincing and rubbing the pressure points the girl had used.

"Stop saying 'ok'," Bikto said, annoyed.

"She was good," Michiko sighed, and Kiba nodded.

The group collected and got back into formation at Korii's advice; they would discuss what had happened as they travelled, since they had already lost some time fighting.

"My person just ran," Korii said, from his place at second in line.

"Same, sort of," Kiba said.

"So did mine," Inel nodded.

"When they saw you were winning?" Kurenai asked, thinking about the brown-haired girl.

"No, she just ran," Korii answered.

"My person looked at his friends, and when he saw that one girl was leaving, he give the three...the third person a hand signal. Then they leave," Inel said, shrugging.

"...A distraction?" Shino guessed.

"I don't think so," Korii said, "They didn't really do anything except kill Michiko's clone."

"Sh. I'm mourning her," Michiko shushed, then closed her eyes, put her palms together, and kept her face solemn.

"You can't be serious," Pooriin said, aggravated, and then swatted at her friend's arms, "Stop that!"

"Are you going to do that each time you lose a clone?" Deniizu asked, still glancing at the ground from time to time for traps.

"Quiet. Give the dead some respect. She fought well," Michiko said, still with her eyes closed.

"Ok, Michiko, cut that out. You can't keep guard if your eyes are closed," Kurenai said.

"That's true..." Michiko opened her eyes.

"Please stop saying 'ok'," Bikto grumbled.

"Ok then," Korii nodded, earning a disgusted groan from Bikto.

"So what _were_ they doing, then?" Kiba asked, "Testing us?"

"Possibly. The question is, _why_," Korii said.

"Maybe they seem to be after the twins," Inel suggested, which recieved strange looks from everyone else, "I will explain. The girl when she attacks tried to kill Pooriin. Why? To get to the twins without any problems. Then she tries to take at least one of the boys with her. The other two attackers are just distracting the rest of our group. See? It makes sense."

_So Inel really is such a good jounin,_ Kurenai thought, _I was worried for a little bit there._

The group continued along the road, completely on guard, but there were no more attacks by the time they reached their campsite at nightfall.

* * *

A/N: Why is it called 'nightfall'? Night does really fall. It just sort of...fades in. (looks around expecting other people to enter the room) Hah! Would you look at that? I'm the only one here! That's awesome! Now, before I jinx the wonderful silence, please review! ...revew! ..._now_... Quick! Before someone walks in! Hurry...! If you don't review now, some crazy axe-murderer or something will come in! Review! Please! For all that is good and chocolatey, just review! ...GAAH!

Deniizu: (walks in) I miss Itachi...why did you get rid of Itachi?

A/N: Ok, obviously we can't have a nukenin following us around during our mission.

Deniizu: But I miss him...

Itachi: (poofs into the room) Miss me much?

Deniizu: Yes! (glomps Itachi)

A/N: Aw, isn't that cute?

Itachi: (pushes away) But Deniizu, I have terrible news.

Deniizu: What? What do you mean?

Itachi: Deniizu, my love..._I am your father._

Deniizu: ...NOOOOOOOOO!

A/N: Ok, footnotes end here. Review already!


	6. Mission Day 3: Travel

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the fact that Neji's birthday is July 3rd, the "Are we there yet?" game (shudder), a monotone, an evil scalpel of chakra, the word 'ggaakkg', random thoughts, a long, silent conversation, Dr. Mario, extreme focus, or an unorthodox Hyuuga.

A/N: OH MY GOSH! THE FINAL BOOK OF 'THE SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS' IS OUT! (runs out of room)

Itachi: (poofs into room)...Seeing as how I am barely in this story, I have taken over part of the author's notes. If there are any problems, keep them to yourself. Otherwise you will have a very bloody future. Now. Before Esperwen left, she mentioned something about this being the last day that she could post before the weekend. I'm assuming this means that she'll post two chapters today.

A/N: (runs by) IT'S TITLE IS 'THE END'! OH MY GOSH! I MUST FIND IT! (leaves)

Itachi: ...hn. By the way, 'glomp' is a word that means something along the lines of 'hugs from behind', and is usually a kind of affectionate attack. 'gordon lacey', you are an imbecile. Also, I am not really Deniizu's father. Far from it. Esperwen was simply being an idiot and made me out of character. ...That should be the end of this headnote then.

* * *

The third day was a nice, sunny, summery, not-too-humid day. Just perfect for a quasi-casual walk on a path in the woods. The third day marked the objective of reaching the half-way point on their map between Thyme and Leaf. The third day also just happened to be Neji's birthday, but nobody paid attention to that. It's not because Neji is a rotten person (ok, he _is_ at this point, but that doesn't count), or that Teams 8 and 13 are lousy, negligent people. It's just that the third day happened to be the rebirth of the 'Are-we-there-yet.' 

"Are we there yet?" Bikto asked.

"Bikto, we've only been marching for half an hour, and it's still pretty early," Goudon complained, "Can't you just leave this off until later?"

"Well? Are we?" Bikto prompted, completely ignoring his older brother.

"No," Michiko said calmly, while carrying Aramis as they walked.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Bikto, could you please stop?" Shino asked in a monotone.

Bikto thought for a moment; he didn't know if Shino was in a good mood or not, so he didn't know if he could press his luck and continue. He also didn't know how good of a fighter Shino was, since the skirmish from the day before couldn't really indicate anything.

Korii, with his Byakugan, could see that Shino was completely tense. Not simply the wary-tense that one becomes when on their guard; more like suppressed-anger-tense. Out of respect, Korii didn't check Shino's eyes, but he could guess that they looked hard.

_I can prevent a fight, or I can let this spin out,_ Korii thought, _Bikto is probably going to continue his act, and I'm, personally, not in the mood for this. Not to mention the client isn't supposed to be harmed._

"Bikto, don't," Korii said in a completely dull voice.

"I'd advise against asking-" Goudon tried to add, but Bikto spoke right over him.

"Are we there yet, chaperone?" Bikto asked, turning and nudging Michiko's arm for an answer.

"No," Michiko answered, still calmly.

_Just two more days and it's over,_ Michiko thought, _Two more days and I can punch his face in._

_That's kind of violent for a future medical ninja,_ Deniizu thought to Michiko wryly.

_Hey, if Kabuto can make a scalpel using chakra, I can make a stone mallet with my fist, right? It's only fair,_ Michiko protested.

"Are we there yet?" Bikto asked, oblivious to the girls' silent conversation.

_I get the next hit, though,_ Deniizu thought, _So leave something for me to beat up. ...And Korii; he wants to finish._

_What about Kiba?_ Michiko thought, "No, Bikto, we're not there yet."

_No, Kiba doesn't actually want to hurt Bikto._

_Is something wrong with him?_

_He wants to _kill_ Bikto. There's a slight difference,_ Deniizu explained.

"Are we there-ggaakkg!"

Bikto stopped walking and keeled over, clutching at his throat and gagging.

"I think he's choking," Korii observed, not bothering to stop or turn around.

Kurenai sighed and walked past Goudon and Pooriin to check on Bikto, thinking, _This is the worst team effort to protect that I have ever seen...hey, he's choking on a bug..._

AHA! TAKE THAT, BIKTO! IN YOUR FACE, CHATORA-BOY! GET 'IM, KIKAICHU! AHAHA!

_I like dinner. These walls are slate-coloured. The fire is orange. Food is good._

_Michiko, you always have such random thoughts._

_But food _is_ good! Especially when you prepare it yourself._

_I wonder how Shino would react if he knew what you were thinking,_ Deniizu thought slyly, swallowing another mouthful of sandwich.

_You wouldn't dare,_ Michiko thought, scandalized.

The group was in a cave that Korii and Inel had led them to; they would stay there for their third night. Michiko was writing in a cloud-covered notebook by the fire while eating, and Deniizu was sitting at the very end of the cave, eating her own dinner. Pooriin was doodling on the page that Michiko wasn't using, while Goudon's red tabby, Athos and D'Artagnan sat watching nearby; Athos and the cat were on the ground, while D'Artagnan was on Pooriin's head. Korii and Shino were sitting near the cave mouth, discussing the next day's journey while Aramis listened, and Inel and Bikto were playing a game of Shougi near Deniizu, with both of Bikto's cats watching. Goudon was already asleep, with his white cat napping on top of his stomach, and Porthos lying on his back beside Goudon, snoring; it was already getting dark outside. Kurenai was examining one of her scrolls while sitting on her sleeping mat, and Kiba and Hinata were out on guard duty.

Michiko had been lying on her stomach; now she rolled over and sat up. Pooriin looked up at her friend, and saw her and Deniizu in a staring match. Deniizu raised her eyebrows and had a slight smile on her face; Michiko looked completely serious. Pooriin furrowed her brow, and Athos and the tabby watched Michiko, all three wondering what was happening; D'Artagnan merely jumped down from Pooriin's head and reached for a pencil with one of his paws. Michiko shook her head almost imperceptibly, and Deniizu cut her eyes and looked at Shino pointedly before looking back at Michiko. The three observers looked back and forth between Michiko and Deniizu, trying to figure out what was going on, while D'Artagnan managed to get his teeth around a pencil. Michiko slowly raised her pen like a sword, pointing at Deniizu and simply holding her pose there, looking menacing. Deniizu smiled casually, got up slowly, and deliberately started walking towards where the co-leaders were sitting; Pooriin, the red tabby, and Athos watched her, all three still not understanding what was happening. D'Artagnan stuggled with the pencil, trying to make a mark on the still-open notebook. Michiko jumped up and made as if stepping towards Deniizu, then froze, still pointing her pen, with her head slightly tilted to the side and a look on her face that screamed, "If you do I swear...!" Athos stood and pawed at Michiko's leg with a whine, as Deniizu gave Michiko a small salute and continued to walk towards Korii and Shino.

"Deniizu, no!" Michiko exclaimed, throwing her pen at the telepath.

Pooriin and the tabby flinched at her sudden outburst, and D'Artagnan accidentally bit through his pencil. With a growl, he dropped it and went to find Michiko's pen, just as Deniizu tapped Shino on the shoulder.

"Hey, you guys should eat dinner," Deniizu said sweetly, "It's getting late."

Michiko froze with a non-plussed look on her face, then let herself fall onto the ground in relief.

_I wouldn't actually tell him,_ Deniizu thought to her, laughing inside.

"What's that all about?" Korii asked, raising an eyebrow at Deniizu after seeing Michiko fall.

"Nothing," Deniizu answered dismissively, with a vague hand motion.

Shino shrugged the matter off, and both he and Korii got up to get food.

"You are so weird," Pooriin said, looking at Michiko with an affectionate smile.

Michiko raised and turned her head just a little, to show Pooriin that she was smiling too, but that look soon vanished when the whole cave heard Akamaru barking and growling outside in the distance. Aramis, who was closest to the opening of the cave, barked fiercely, and looked as if he wanted to run out and join his friend; doing this woke up Porthos and Goudon. Kurenai, Inel, Korii, Athos and Aramis all stood at the cave's mouth, listening hard. Akamaru's noise was joined with a short bark, a howl, and another short bark. Korii and Kurenai turned to Michiko questioningly.

"That was Kiba," Michiko said brusquely, getting up, "Someone's attacking."

"Ok, then," Korii nodded, "Inel-sensei, Kurenai-san, Deniizu, let's go. Shino, you're the leader here. Michiko, you also have to stay and protect the clients. Also, I need you to lend me Athos; if he runs back here, we need help."

Deniizu joined the two sensei and her teammate at the cave's opening, and all four turned back to Michiko, waiting for her. Michiko scowled a little, and Korii knew why.

"The medical nin on a team is the last to jump into a fight, because her talent needs to be protected," Korii said quietly.

"Because of her weakness, she's next to useless," Michiko whispered vehemently, then turned to Athos and spoke in her normal voice, "You heard him, boy. You're up."

Athos stood on his hind legs with a bark and leaned against Michiko.

"Fight for me, ok?" she requested quietly, patting him on the head as a goodbye.

With another bark, Athos went back down on all fours and trotted to the rest of Team 13. Inel and Kurenai quickly walked out into the evening; Korii followed close behind with Athos at his heels. Deniizu gave Michiko, Kurenai and Shino a quick salute before hurrying after her team. Michiko sighed, then kicked a loose stone on the ground before turning back to the fire and her notebook. D'Artagnan was sitting proudly beside it with Michiko's pen in his mouth, and she could see why.

"Hm...you drew some nice squiggles, pup. It kind of looks like black ramen."

Bleh...black ramen...I don't even like black licorice. But burnt marshmallows are good.

Team 13 met a sorry sight when they came to the place where Kiba and Hinata had been keeping watch. Hinata was curled up on the ground in the fetal position, clutching a kunai, hiding her face and trembling. Akamaru was bleeding from his left shoulder and right flank but still defending Hinata, and Kiba was trying to guard Hinata's other side with a very obvious limp. There were three bandits, none of which were the ones from the day before; there was a girl in a green tunic with a dark blue belt, a girl that looked like the one from the day before, only with longer hair, and a boy dressed like Dr. Mario only in black. All three were attacking Hinata and Kiba with no scruples whatsoever. Kurenai and Korii were the first to start running; Kurenai saw her student in danger, and Korii saw his cousin being attacked. With a curse, Korii activated his Byakugan just as Deniizu and Inel started running.

"Hinata, get up!" the older Hyuuga yelled, launching himself at the Dr. Mario lookalike, "Forget your fear; just fight!"

Back to the cave!

Goudon, Bikto, their four cat companions and Pooriin all sat at the back of the cave, with the three dogs sitting protectively around them; Porthos was in the front and center, D'Artagnan was at the right, and Aramis sat at the left in front of Pooriin. Shino stood at the cave mouth listening for and trying to sense anything that might be a threat to the team's clients. Pooriin had been helping Michiko remove the medical 'obi'; now Michiko folded it carefully and placed it in her giant bookbag before joining Shino.

"You took it off?" Shino asked, not turning away from the outside when he heard Michiko reach him.

"I have to be a fighting ninja right now; not a healing one," Michiko said, taking out a kunai for each hand before adding softly, "Maybe a killing ninja."

Shino turned his head, almost imperceptably, towards Michiko. He saw discontent written all over her face, but wasn't sure why.

_Am I always going to be left behind? _Michiko was thinking, gripping her kunai hard, _Will I always be so useless? _Michiko blinked and sighed, _I sound emo in my thoughts...tsk...I just hope I don't have to actually...kill..._

_Is she afraid?_ Shino thought, seeing a dead look in Michiko's eyes.

Shino stepped a little to the side so that their arms were touching, and Michiko looked up at him questioningly. His head was turned; he seemed to be looking straight at her.

"You don't have to be afraid," Shino said in a voice quiet enough that the Chatora couldn't hear.

"I'm not really," Michiko answered with a shrug, equally quietly, "I just...wish I had a better part in this mission."

Shino raised an eyebrow.

"'A better part'? You're directly protecting the client-"

"Yeah, I know, I know. It's an honour to be the one trusted enough to be the last line of defence," Michiko rolled her eyes and looked out of the cave, the grip on her kunai tensing again, "I love being the guardian of those that don't need me."

"Michiko..." Shino said unsmilingly.

"I _know_. 'A true shinobi does not think of personal gain, but of the mission.' I _am _thinking of the mission."

_Then you wouldn't be thinking like this,_ Shino thought, _You'd be content with what you have._

Michiko looked at Shino and he turned away, a slight frown forming and his torso starting to turn away from Michiko to just slightly show his back.

_He doesn't agree,_ Michiko thought, annoyed, then felt resigned, _But of course. His clan is incredible; this is how they fulfill all of their missions so flawlessly. Extreme focus._

Back to the fight!

Korii was getting very annoyed with 'Dr Mario'; somehow, the slightly shorter boy was continually dodging and staying out of range of Korii's Juuken. Trying again with his left hand, Korii almost managed to get the boy, but at the last second he still twisted out of the way and threw a kunai at Hinata.

"Damn this shit," Korii growled, catching the kunai by the handle before it could get past him, "Screw the Gentle Fist style!"

Kurenai glanced at Korii for a second before turning back to her and Deniizu's opponent, the brown-haired girl.

_That Hyuuga is using a kunai and curved sword to fight, _she thought, surprised, _He's certainly unorthodox._

_If Korii-kun can fight untraditionally, then I should be able to at least do something,_ Hinata thought, still shaking on the ground, _...but I can't..._

"Whoa!" the black-clad bandit exclaimed, when Korii almost gutted him with the dagger, "Just a little longer, everyone! Hold on!"

"Hold on for what?" Kiba snarled, while Athos and Inel protected him and Akamaru where he sat, resting. But he received no answer.

* * *

A/N: No answer! No answer! The world is ending! Doom and destruction for all! Oh no! AAAH! ...I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND 'THE END'! (runs out)

Itachi: ...review, before I kill your family. And your family's family. And your friends. And your friends' families. And that guy that was sitting beside you on that plane trip? Him too. So please, review.


	7. Mission Day 3: About Fire

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the evening sky, green hair, blind spots, no choice, really bad puns, really bad grammar, poor anger management, turning bright red, or a mysterious clan of bandits.

Itachi: Esperwen is still looking for that book. (just glares at reader through screen. Doesn't move.)

* * *

Michiko looked up into the evening sky while waiting with Shino for either a signal, or another attack. 

_Huh...a waxing gibbous moon,_ Michiko thought, meaning the time between when the moon is full and when it is a half-moon, _The moon is only ever always full or a crescent on TV...you have to time yourself in order to see it in real life...I should be keeping an eye out. I need to focus; otherwise, I really _am_ useless._

Shino was also looking at the moon.

_Waxing gibbous,_ he thought, _Too bad it isn't full...Michiko might like to see that..._

Both ninjas heard rustling coming from bushes at one side and tensed, waiting. The rustling continued; both noticed that the bushes were on the side closest to where the rest of the ninja were.

"Who's there?" Michiko called, in a steady voice.

Shino glanced at Michiko as he took out a kunai. Her voice belied her true feelings; she was visibly trembling. Looking back at the bushes, Shino held his kunai at the ready, and both ninjas waited for someone to emerge.

_Please be Athos, or somebody we know,_ Michiko thought, trying to get rid of the knot in her stomach.

Both genin stared intently at the bushes. Too intently.

"Michiko, the other side!" Pooriin screamed at the back of the cave.

"Huh?"

Michiko and Shino both turned accordingly, and just caught a glimpse of a girl wearing white who had short, spiky, green hair run into the cave from the side that they had not been watching. Shino gave Michiko a slight push forward on her back, meaning that he wanted her to run straight for the intruder; meanwhile, he ran to the back of the cave, where the clients were, and where the intruder seemed to be headed. Shino positioned himself protectively in front of the Chatora once he reached them, well before the green-haired girl did. The enemy threw a kunai backwards at Michiko as she jumped at Shino with a scythe in one hand. Shino used two kunai to grab a hold of the scythe, and attempted to wrench it out of her hands, but she managed to free it before he could. Michiko knocked away the thrown kunai, then found that the girl had thrown another kunai in its blind spot. Deflecting it just inches from her face, Michiko saw how clever the girl was; there was a third kunai in the second kunai's blind spot.

_Uh-oh..._

Michiko froze, the third kunai coming straight for her eye; it was too close for her to dodge, and she hadn't mastered the Art of Substitution to the level of not needing hand seals.

"Move, Michiko!" Goudon yelled, seeing that Shino was too caught up in his fight with the other girl to help.

Goudon was still a ninja; instinctively, he threw one of his own kunai as fast as he could towards Michiko. Just before it could blind Michiko, the green-haired girl's kunai was knocked away by Goudon's.

"You're safe, now, Michiko!" Goudon called, unsure whether to leave his place, "Help Shino!"

Michiko stayed frozen where she was; she couldn't move at all.

"Michiko!" Bikto yelled, just as Shino got nicked on the ear by the green-haired girl's scythe.

She was like a statue, with a look of terror still on her face. Pooriin was right in front of her friend; she saw one tiny tear fall from Michiko's eye before her kunai fell from her hands, forgotten.

"Boys, do something! Wake her up!" Pooriin exclaimed, pushing at the dog that sat in front of her.

With a bark, Porthos and D'Artagnan leapt for Michiko, while Aramis stood between the clients and where Shino was fighting the green-haired girl; at least one dog would keep his post. Barking and nipping at Michiko's legs and hands, the dog's tried to get Michiko to do something, but still she didn't move.

"Pathetic," Bikto muttered loudly, "She's no use as a ninja."

A kunai whizzed past the wild-eyed teen's face, hit the cave wall behind him and landed on the stone floor with a clatter. Bikto looked towards where the knife had originated, and saw that Shino had thrown it.

"This is her first mission; you leave her be," Goudon said warningly.

"First mistake," the green-haired girl said with a malicious grin, hitting Shino hard in the stomach with her knee, "You're too easily distracted; focus on the fight!"

Shino found himself suddenly on the ground, coughing up blood.

_She hits _hard, Shino thought, surprised at the sudden strength in the girl's small body.

"Get up!" the girl growled, bringing her foot down towards Shino's head, thinking, _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't have a choice._

Shino managed to roll out of the way and got up again in a second, narrowly missing a slash to the face from the girl's scythe.

"Michiko, I need help!" Shino yelled, dodging a stab from the girl's kunai.

_Shino..._

Michiko heard his voice from the depths of her mind that she had retreated into, and began to revive.

_Shino...he...needs help...! Shino!_

Michiko blinked and realized that Porthos was just about hanging off of her hand by the teeth.

"Ow! Get off!" Michiko exclaimed, shaking her dog off, "What was...?"

Michiko looked around, and saw Shino pinned against the cave wall, and the green-haired girl with her scythe raised. Her eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in rage.

"There's no way I'm letting you do that!" Michiko bellowed, instantly turning herself into fire and rushing the girl, using chakra to make herself faster.

The green-haired girl turned at the sound of Michiko's voice, and her jaw dropped.

_Kamisama...there's a girl made of fire running towards me...!_ she thought.

Immediately, she let Shino go and ran straight out the cave exit, passing by a little brown dog that was just entering, and taking one precious second to throw up a flare. Michiko had gained a lot of momentum rushing the girl; for a second, Shino thought he was going to get burnt. However, the 'fire-girl' seemed to 'splash' around him; the flames went around him and he was surrounded by a ring of fire on the wall before it moved off and out of the cave in pursuit of the green-haired girl. Athos, who was the brown dog that the intruder had passed, looked as if he were enveloped in fire, but as the fire left the cave, Athos was still running into the cave, completely unscathed.

"...the hell was that all about?" Goudon exclaimed after a moment.

"Was that a pun?" Pooriin asked, "You know, with hell, and the fire..."

The boys and all four dogs stared at the black-haired girl.

"Forget it," Pooriin hung her head.

There was more silence, then Athos barked for attention.

"The others need help," Shino said stoically, as if nothing unusual had just happened, "I'll go; the four dogs will guard the entrance. Pooriin, could you pass me Michiko's obi?"

Pooriin dug through Michiko's bag and obeyed; Shino looked for a long, thin pocket that Michiko had told him about. He found it, opened it, and removed four soldier pills from it before closing the pocket and passing the sash back to Pooriin. Shino fed the Four Musketeers one pill each, and quickly left the cave to help his group.

Where's Michiko? What's happening with the others? What was the flare for?

Where is there a copy of 'The End' by Lemony Snicket? So many questions...

When Shino found the rest of the travelling party, their battle was already over.

"I thought you needed help fighting?" Shino said, looking around.

Kurenai, who had minor wounds, had her arm around Hinata, who was still crouched on the ground, and Korii stood protectively nearby; the 16-year-old boy had a long slash down his left leg. Deniizu had a bleeding scratch on her right cheek, a deep slash on her right arm, and she was sitting on the ground rigidly; she and Kiba sat back to back, defending each other, while Akamaru sat in Kiba's lap. Inel also had only minor injuries, but as he stood and tuned his violin, he watched the surrounding woods sharply as he spoke to Shino.

"We did when we send Athos," Inel nodded, "But soon, a flare is up in the sky by the cave, and the leader calls for retreat. They know these area well; they had a advantage in the dark. What happens at the cave?"

Shino explained just loud enough so that Korii, Inel, and Kurenai could hear; anyone further away would at best hear his voice, but not the words. This way, no enemies who were still nearby could eavesdrop.

"Korii, are you ok?" Deniizu asked, concerned.

"Of course I am, Deniizu," Korii shrugged casually.

"Oh, but your leg! It's bleeding badly," Deniizu exclaimed, her eyes getting misty.

"Are you all right?" Korii asked, ignoring her last comment.

"Yes, but your leg-"

"Then I am too," Korii interrupted, looking into her eyes intensely.

"Oh, Korii," Deniizu gushed, "You're so heroic!"

"Why, thank you," Korii smiled.

"Oh, Korii!" Deniizu sighed.

"Korii! Hey, Korii?"

The Hyuuga boy blinked when Inel's voice cut through his daydream.

"Heh...huh...what?"

"Korii, what do we do now?" Inel asked, "You are still leader. ...Well? Were you listening?"

"Um, yeah, uh..." Korii thought for a moment, trying to make sense of what was going on, "Um...oh! Yeah, we need Michiko right now. I think maybe you and Shino should go find her, since you're the least damaged. Kurenai-san and Hinata can guard us."

"Wait."

Everyone looked at Deniizu, who had spoken up.

"Shino, did you see Michiko when she turned into fire?" Deniizu asked, on a sudden hunch.

Shino nodded, and Deniizu asked:

"Can I see it? Just think about it, and I'll look with my limit. And I need it as detailed as you can make it."

Shino shrugged, and thought about how Michiko had transformed. How the look on her face had changed, and how her clothing had turned black. Deniizu's eyebrows went up when she saw that, then she closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I think Kurenai-san and Hinata should go," Deniizu said, "Just trust me on this one."

"Ok..." Kurenai nodded slowly as she helped Hinata up.

_And I think you should drop by the cave,_ Deniizu said into their heads, and after she recieved a strange look from them, she privately explained Michiko's situation to them, as well as to Inel and Korii (the team had to know).

"Oh..." Kurenai nodded quickly now, and spots of colour appeared on Hinata's cheeks, "We understand."

What happened to Michiko? What is her situation? Where is my lunch? I'm hungry...

After making a quick stop at the cave and getting what they (or in this case, Michiko) needed, Kurenai and Hinata easily followed a trail of singed grass, trees and leaves that Fire-Michiko had left behind. After some time; Michiko hadn't given up on her chase easily; the two kunoichi came across a stream where the burned trail stopped. Looking at the ground, there were bare footprints that led back into the trees by a different route, and after some tracking, they found Michiko curled up with her back towards them, in a clump of bushes, without any clothing on.

"Michiko, it's us," Kurenai said gently.

"We brought you a change of clothes," Hinata added, holding the folded pile towards her friends.

Michiko turned her head to look and make sure there weren't any boys, then sat up properly and meekly took her clothes from Hinata.

"Thanks," Michiko said softly, already pulling on her necessities.

_She's very bold,_ Kurenai thought to herself, _I'd be mortified if I had to get dressed in front of other people, even if they were female._

_Why make a scene about propriety and make this day worse?_ Michiko thought bitterly, pulling her shirt on.

"How is everyone?" Michiko asked, getting started on her dress, "What did I miss? I need a proper medical report, if you can give one."

Kurenai described the state of each of the group members while Michiko finished getting dressed; when she was done, Michiko was glaring at the sandals Hinata had just handed to her.

"You didn't have any spare sandals," Hinata explained quickly, "So Pooriin's lending these until we get to the village and can buy you new ones."

"...pink..." Michiko growled, referring to what was her least favourite colour, and the colour of Pooriin's sandals, before pulling them on.

"What happened?" Kurenai asked, curiously, as all three of them got up to return to camp.

"About what? My clothes, or that girl?" Michiko asked.

"Both, but first the girl," Kurenai answered.

Michiko thought for a moment, planning what to say before continuing.

"Basically, I was chasing her as fire; she managed to keep ahead of me, but I don't know if she's especially fast, or if she was using chakra like me. She either knew or guessed that I couldn't cross water as fire, so she ran across that stream. I tried to follow, and when the water hurt me, the pain shocked me out of being fire and I transformed into human again. I noticed I had nothing on, so the first thing I did was hide. I figured Korii-kun or Inel-sensei would send some help."

"How did you lose your clothes?" Hinata blurted, then turned bright red, with Michiko joining her.

"Uh...well...I got really mad, and since my bloodline limit is connected to my emotions, I turned into fire," Michiko stammered.

"But you've done that before, and you still...kept..." Hinata trailed off, and both girls turned redder, "Well, what I mean is, what happened that was different?"

"Um...I almost lost complete control," Michiko mumbled almost inaudibly, "I need at least a little control so that my clothes and whatever I'm holding transform with me, but when I changed, I wasn't thinking properly. I almost burned Shino and Athos; it's a miracle I didn't."

WHERE IS 'THE END'? WHERE IS 'THE END'?

Monoka, the green-haired girl, arrived at her own camp with the other three that had been with her.

"Well?"

The clan's leader, Sumoggu, adjusted his black headband that reminded their team all too much of what a doctor might wear. He looked at Monoka impatiently.

"Do you know which girl it is?" he asked.

Monoka smiled shyly and nodded.

"It's the girl that always wears blue, not the one in pink. Just like I thought," Monoka grinned.

"Are you sure?"

All the clan turned to Ruko in surprise; the boy in the brown trenchcoat usually let others ask the questions.

"Are you sure that she really is the Gorgon?" Ruko asked again.

"How could she have known my greatest fear was fire?" Monoka asked, shivering a little, "It _had_ to be her."

"She fits the physical description, too," Tsume added, petting her hawk companion, "I think we've found her."

"Wonderful," Sumoggu smiled, rubbing his hands together.

"So when do we, like, attack?" Emi asked, running a hand through her short, brown hair, and her cousin, Ezu, raised an eyebrow questioninly.

"Tomorrow," Sumoggu answered, barely needing to think about it, "We've been searching so long, so why must we wait longer? We strike tomorrow."

* * *

Itachi: ..._Isaac_ will strike tomorrow, at the Pentagon- (looks up) ...You heard nothing. You will review as if you read nothing suspicious happened.

A/N: You will also not inform the US Police or FBI, because that line was written as a joke. Please don't sue. But you can review! And that rhymes!


	8. Mission Day 3: Medical Jutsu

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, a bloodline limit, a medical obi, antiseptic, 'I need some sleep' by the Eels (it's stuck in my head...), unauthorized medical items, or the chicken vs. egg question.

Itachi: Nobody appears to be reading this story any more. ...heads will roll tonight...

* * *

When Kurenai, Michiko and Hinata got back to the cave, all of the travelling party was already assembled there. Michiko couldn't help but notice that Inel and Korii weren't looking straight at her, and that Deniizu seemed to be silently laughing. The three Chatora were still sitting at the back of the cave, and Kiba, Deniizu and Korii were all sitting on their sleeping mats. The cats were all pointedly avoiding the Four Musketeers, and Michiko could see why; the dogs were all slightly bigger, and much more fierce than usual, due to eating soldier pills. Especially Athos; he was the largest and heaviest pup to begin with. But the cats didn't need to worry; all four dogs were sitting around Akamaru protectively; the slightly older dog was lying on a blanket beside Kiba, obviously hurt. As Kurenai joined Inel by the cave mouth to act as sentry, she replaced Shino's post, and Shino joined Hinata and Michiko as they entered the cave. 

"Do you need any help?" Hinata asked, looking at the ninjas on their mats, and Shino looked as if he wanted to be of assistance too.

Michiko glanced over each person where she stood, and suddenly felt overwhelmed; she'd never needed to heal so many serious wounds at such short notice. And she was tired; she had been walking all day, and though turning into fire was easiest, maintaining her fire-form literally burned chakra. Michiko walked to the back of the cave, retrieved her obi, and with Pooriin's help, she fastened it around her waist again. Reaching into one of the pockets, Michiko got a bottle of antiseptic, which she rubbed thoroughly onto her hands. Once she was done, she passed the bottle to Hinata and searched in another pocket.

"Use that on your hands to get rid of any bacteria that might be there," Michiko instructed, talking to both Hinata and Shino, "After, I want you to wash any open wounds, no matter how small, with warm water and this soap," Michiko handed a plastic container with a bar of soap to Hinata when Hinata handed the antiseptic to Shino, "If the wound is literally only a scratch, bandage it securely. Otherwise, move on to the next person or wait for me."

Shino and Hinata nodded to show they understood, and after getting her antiseptic back from Shino, Michiko turned to the three Chatora.

"Are any of you three hurt?" Michiko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Pooriin answered, as the twins shook their heads.

"Ok," Michiko nodded, "Unless you want to help, I need you to stay out of the way as much as possible. And your cats."

"I'll help," Pooriin offered, and Goudon put his hand out for the antiseptic.

"No thanks. I need some sleep," Bikto shrugged, moving towards his sleeping mat.

_Just stay out of the way,_ Michiko thought, annoyed, as she passed the bottle to Goudon and activated her healing jutsu, _I have people to take care of, and you can't mess it up_.

Back off, Michiko's in healing-mode.

An hour after midnight, most of the cave was asleep; Kiba and Deniizu, who were now both fully healed, were the ones on sentry duty at the cave entrance, while Shino was helping Michiko with healing Korii, who was already asleep. As the blue aura around Michiko's hands faded away, Shino did what little help he could in putting away Michiko's supplies; though there were pills and bottles in Michiko's 'obi', she still had a full-sized medical kit in her bag filled with bandages and equipment.

"How did you manage to buy these things?" Shino asked, looking dubiously at a pack of syringes.

"Who says I bought them?" Michiko mumbled, wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead.

Michiko felt Shino's glare and grinned.

"Of course I bought them. I always go to the hospital, usually with Inel-sensei, for at least two hours and watch any operations that I can so I can learn. Most of the doctors there recognize me, and some of them give me small lessons during their breaks. When we got this mission, I asked some of the doctors what I should bring; that's where I got my idea for this obi. And one of the doctors gave me her extra travelling medical kit; I guess she didn't realize all the extra stuff was in there."

Shino nodded as he zipped up the kit.

"That's everyone," he said, getting up.

"I guess can we call it a day," Michiko said, yawning and stretching before she grabbed the medical kit and stood up.

She turned to Shino, and was surprised when she didn't see him. Looking down, she saw that Shino was keeled over, stifling his coughs so that she couldn't hear them.

"How long have you been doing that?" Michiko exclaimed, dropping her kit and helping Shino to his sleeping mat, thinking, _I thought he was ok...ugh, how could I not notice?_

"It just started," Shino lied, coughing openly now as he lay on his mat.

Michiko looked at the inside of the collar, and saw multiple blood spatters; most were dry, and some were new.

"Liar," Michiko growled, undoing his coat, "You've been bleeding for hours."

Putting her ear against his chest, she heard a lot of liquid moving as Shino coughed; he had been bleeding for a long time. She also checked his heart and lungs; his heartbeat was fast but steady, and his lungs weren't punctured.

"Ahou. I should smack you," Michiko growled, eating half of a soldier pill; she was running out of chakra.

"I thought it would go away," Shino mumbled, before coughing again.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Michiko shook her head, irritated, and activated her healing jutsu and started healing him.

The two were silent for a little while; only the slight buzz of Michiko's blue medical jutsu was heard. When Shino was healed completely on the inside, Michiko spoke again while helping him sit up.

"What happened?" Michiko asked, "Did the girl throw some kind of technique at you?"

"No," Shino shook his head, "She was stronger than I anticipated; she kicked me."

"Wow."

Michiko thought for a moment, then said, "I'm going to try to induce some of that blood out of your lungs; you're going to cough really badly, and it'll hurt, but it's better than leaving liquid inside your lungs."

Shino nodded, and after putting paper towels on his front and moving so that she knelt behind him, Michiko used her medical jutsu to push the blood out of his breathing system. Shino winced and began hacking up his blood; she was right; it hurt, and he was coughing badly. After a few minutes, she was done, but it had seemed longer.

_She wasn't kidding,_ Shino thought, panting to get his breath back while Michiko cleaned him up.

"I wouldn't have needed to do that if you'd just told me in the beginning," Michiko scolded lightly, wiping a bit of blood and bile off of his face, "No need to act all herioc; we're a team, we need to know all of each other's weaknesses so that they can be taken care of."

Michiko smiled at Shino, then winced and her eyes went out of focus. She started swaying where she sat, and Shino reached out and steadied her by the shoulders.

"Who's acting herioc now?" Shino asked wryly, getting up as Michiko covered her eyes with one hand.

"Shut up," Michiko said, not unkindly, as Shino helped her to her own sleeping mat.

"You overdid it; why did you tell us that you needed help earlier?" Shino teased.

"I said, 'shut up'," Michiko smiled, swatting weakly at Shino with her right arm.

Shino easily caught her arm at the wrist; feeling something under his thumb, he looked and saw that it was the scar hole. Both stared at it for a second, then looked down, suddenly shy.

"Get some sleep, ok?" Michiko said quietly, staring at her lap.

Shino traced the hole gently with one finger before letting her go and getting up.

"Goodnight, Michiko."

"Well, _I_ think the egg came first," Deniizu argued, as Shino returned to his sleeping mat.

"_I _think it was the chicken," Kiba protested.

"No way, it was the egg!"

"Ok, Kamisama did not create a whole bunch of eggs to hatch magically on their own. The chicken came first!"

"Oh, so a complete adult chicken just randomly happened on earth? The egg came first, Kiba!"

"Chicken!"

"Egg!"

"Chicken!"

"Egg!"

Korii tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose as he lay on his sleeping mat; it was going to be a long night.

* * *

A/N: Mm...medical jutsu...it makes the world go round...(gets distracted) OO! Hot Gimmick!

Itachi: You and your foolish shojo manga...just post the next chapter.

A/N: I will! Just...hang on...(walks away reading 'Hot Gimmick')

Itachi: ...you can assume she wants you to review now.


	9. Mission Day 4: Cameos

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, I don't even own the idea for this dream (it's in the Naruto manga), sentry duty, the Final Bucket of River Water, Lee and Gai-sensei moments, tracking or stalking skills, or Kyou of Fruits Basket.

Itachi: ...why is there another girl manga mentioned here? Who even likes Fruits Basket, anyway?

A/N: (raises hand) _I_ do! And I'm keeping you alive in this fic, so you can't hurt me! (sticks tongue out) Nyah!

Itachi: ...you're a five-year-old...

* * *

_Michiko stood in the middle of a field, looking forward and laughing. She didn't need to turn; she knew that Deniizu and Shino were on either side of her, then Hinata, Korii and Pooriin, and Kiba and Takona, her old teacher and caregiver. Then there was Inel-sensei, and Kiba's sister, Hana; soon her fellow genins were added, and the people at the hospital. All her important people were standing beside her, in a line; she felt so protected and accepted. Then the green field lost its flowers, and some of the people on the edges disappeared, but Michiko kept smiling. Then more people disappeared, and the grass wilted, appearing only in patches; Michiko's smile was no longer so wide. Then Hana, Inel and Takona disappeared; the ground was only dust, and Michiko had only a small smile.. Kiba, Korii and Hinata faded away; Michiko had only a half-smile. She held onto Deniizu and Shino's hands tightly, but Deniizu slowly pried her hand out of her grasp and walked away; the ground was so dry, small cracks were forming. Pooriin looked at Michiko, then slowly, she too faded into nothing. Feeling him turning colder, Michiko turned to Shino; she held her tears back and tried to beg Shino to stay, but something held her voice and she couldn't._

_"What's the matter with you?" Shino said in a chilling voice, "I don't know who you are. You're useless to me."_

_Michiko tried to hold him tighter, tried to say something; anything that would stop him from leaving. But he became colder and colder, and finally, Shino faded away, just like the others._

"Michiko. Michiko."

The future medical ninja rolled over in her sleeping mat, away from the voice, and accidentally hit her head against something very hard, and very cold.

_Good...just a dream, _Michiko thought, _Please, just be suppressed thoughts..._

"Well done, you hit your head on the cave wall," Korii congratulated, clapping his hands slowly.

"Ow..." Michiko grumbled, slowly sitting up and rubbing her forehead.

"Hey, at least you didn't have sentry duty," Goudon called from his own sleeping mat, before turning back to a scroll he was reading.

"I got cut from guard duty?" Michiko asked, still not fully awake.

"You earned your rest with that healing thing that you do," Korii shrugged, grabbing Michiko by the shoulders and lifting her up so that she stood, "However, you still have to help this group out, so you get the job of collecting water for the morning."

"Great," Michiko mumbled, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and stumbling to find the water bucket.

"Remember, we need three loads to last all of us," Korii called, as Michiko left the cave.

"Are you sure it's safe to let her outside in that state?" Kurenai asked Inel, concerned.

"Oh, she is safer when half-asleep," Inel answered jovially, "She gets very mad if somebody, like the enemy, suddenly wake her up. If she wake up slowly, everbody is safe. If fast, she attack with great strength."

I'm hungry.

It was at the third bucket-load that Michiko finally woke up completely. This fact may or may not have anything to do with Bikto tripping her into a thorny bush on the way back out of the cave. And Korii, Kiba and Goudon may or may not have had to restrain Michiko and her four dogs for about half an hour, causing Deniizu to have to be the one to collect water. But that's all irrelevant; back to the exciting trip of collecting the Final Bucket of River Water!(insert many exclamation points here, since Fanfiction edits multiple punctuation out).

"First, Deniizu walked along an Action-Packed Natural Dirt Path!" the first announcer said.

"Then she Actively Jumped Across Three Precarious Mossy Stones!" the second announcer said.

"Then Deniizu Carefully Yet Calmly knelt down and Assertively Inserted the Bucket of Wonder with Great Youthfulness into the Tumultuous River of Possible Drowning!" the first announcer said.

"Gai-sensei, that was incredible announcing!" the second announcer said, "I hope one day I can be a great announcer like you!"

Deniizu was trying to ignore the two voices that were coming from a clump of bushes on the opposite side of the river, but they kept recurring.

"Do not worry, Lee!" the first announcer (who was Gai, if you haven't figured it out), said in an emotional voice, "I will train you until you are an announcer that is even greater that me!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

_I'm leaving now,_ Deniizu thought, hurrying away with her now-full Bucket of Wonder. Um...I mean, bucket.

Now I'm tired.

Michiko, after being placated by her teammates, was now taking Deniizu's place at guard duty with Aramis and D'Artagnan. Sitting just far enough from the cave to give the group ample warning of an attack, Michiko tried to stay focused on her job. However, she kept coming back to her dream, and her companions couldn't help but notice. Aramis sniffed Michiko's chin questioningly, and D'Artagnan pawed at her fist, which was grinding into the ground and had white knuckles.

_Suppressed thoughts,_ Michiko thought, not seeing her dogs' actions, _It's all suppressed thoughts. They're not going to leave you. ...why do I have such vivid dreams in _this_ world? I barely ever dream in the other one._

Michiko started when she heard a twig snap somewhere in the forest to her right, but remembering her training, she didn't turn to look just yet. Looking at her dogs and patting them on the head, she made small hand signals for D'Artagnan to go back to the cave and warn the others, and for Aramis to follow right behind Michiko.

_Right about now, I wish I had Byakugan, _Michiko thought, getting up silently and sneaking towards where the twig had broken, pulling out two kunai as she went, _No matter; it's now my job to protect the group, Byakugan or no Byakugan._

Michiko kept creeping into the woods, trying to find whoever had made that noise; she strained her eyes, but still she couldn't see anybody.

_I can't just use my eyes,_ Michiko thought, _I have to use all my senses._

Michiko examined the ground where she thought the sound had originated from, glancing up every few seconds. She saw a broken branch; someone had stepped on it. Aramis sniffed the branch, then led Michiko in the direction that the cave was in, following the scent as he walked. Michiko listened hard, trying to catch some sign of another person. After a moment, she heard a bell and her eyes widened.

_I've heard that kind of bell...a really small one,_ Michiko thought, _Not a sleigh bell...one that you put on a pet's collar. Another animal user?_

Michiko could see the person now; it was a boy who seemed to be a little bit older than her, with orange hair. He wore a black t-shirt and grey cargo pants; beside him walked an orange cat with a tiny brass bell tied around its neck. Both were trying to walk as quietly as possible; they weren't in sight of the cave, but they seemed to be looking for something, and Michiko guessed it was the cave.

"Aramis," Michiko whispered, getting down onto her hands and knees and putting her head as close the the dog's as possible, "Jump the cat, and hang onto it. Don't hurt it; they may be Chatora. I'll handle the guy."

Aramis pawed Michiko's nose to show that he understood, Michiko nodded, and then as one, both jumped straight for the strangers.

Aramis landed right onto the cat, which let out a shrill screech when he did so; the orange cat tried to struggle, but Aramis was sitting on its back, and had his teeth clamped securely on the back of its neck. Michiko did not have such an easy time; she managed to knock the boy down, but he was fast and agile. Michiko tried to hold the boy down, but he easily pushed her away, throwing her against the nearest tree. He tried to stick a kunai into her throat, but Michiko managed to turn away and elbow him in the side. As the boy clutched at where she'd hit him, Michiko delivered another blow at the side of his head; not hard enough to knock him out, but just so that the boy was stunned. In the moment that the boy was dazed, Michiko quickly took wire out of her pouch and tied the boy's arms behind his back securely. The boy tried to lash out, but Michiko tripped him so that he ended up on his back, and sat on his legs so that he couldn't get up.

"Damn Inuzuka bitch!" the boy yelled, still trying to get up.

"I'm not an Inuzuka," Michiko said calmly, thinking, _Though I wish I were. That would be cool. ...this guy must be a Chatora._

"You're not?" the boy asked in a surprised voice, which quickly relapsed back into angry, "Liar! You use a dog for your companion!"

"Because I like dogs. Not because I'm from the House of Dogs," Michiko explained.

The boy kept struggling and Michiko sighed. After sharing a look with Aramis, she spoke up again.

"Look at your cat, dude, she's better behaved than you," she said, examining her nails.

The boy stopped writhing and turned his head to look. Michiko was right, the cat was looking at him like he was an idiot. With a final curse, the boy relaxed and spoke in a more reasonable tone.

"Why did you attack me?" he asked, sounding subdued.

"Because you looked like you were going to attack my friends and clients," Michiko answered, starting to braid her hair, "Next question."

"Who are you?" the boy asked after a moment of thought.

"It's rude to ask for someone's name before giving your own," Michiko shrugged, still braiding her hair.

"It's rude to attack someone without warning, too, you know!" the boy yelled, suddenly angry again.

"...That's true," Michiko nodded thoughtfully, deliberately still fixing her hair, "But I'm still not telling you my name. I have people that I'm protecting right now; what if giving you my name puts them in jeopardy?"

The boy swore again, hit his head against the ground a couple times, then sighed in frustration.

"Fine," the boy said, subdued again, "My name is Chatora Kyou. I'm looking for the ninjas that are escorting my cousins. Their names are Chatora Goudon, Pooriin, and Bikto. Are you one of the ninjas? Since you have that headband, I'm guessing you're from Konoha."

Michiko tied the end of her braid, and got off of Kyou's legs. Kneeling beside the boy, she gave him an apologetic smile before untying his wrists.

"Sorry. I didn't know who you were, and precautions were necessary," Michiko said, "My name is Michiko of the Tea Village, and yes, I'm helping escort your cousins. I'll take you to them right away."

* * *

Gai: Yosh! Again this chapter is ACTION PACKED!

Itachi: ...why are you even _in _this fic? That's like putting aliens on Fruits Basket. It simply isn't done!

Gai: Do not mind Itachi's moaning, dear readers! It's just that he is so un-YOUTHFUL! from killing his family off at such a young age!

A/N: (sees death glint in Itachi's eye) Um...I suggest you review now...and if Gai is in a wheelchair during the next filler that you see, you know what happened.


	10. Mission Day 4: 'Bye, Sensei

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the "I Spy" game, green (you can tell I'm running out of ideas), syringes, a campfire, the Hyuuga cursed seal, or the words 'baba ganoush'. Not that baba ganoush is in this chapter...(cough)

A/N: Almost couldn't post today...darned class in the library during my spare, not letting me use the computers...

Itachi: Ignore her. Just read.

* * *

"I spy, with my little eye, something that is..." Pooriin looked around for a second, then said, "Green."

Michiko yawned while she, Pooriin, and Goudon played their game; for the whole day, she didn't feel like she'd slept at all.

"That mossy log over there?" Michiko guessed, pointing to the side.

"No," Pooriin shook her head.

"Hinata's sleeping mat?" Goudon guessed, pointing at Hinata, who was walking backwards, watching the road behind them.

"No."

"Kurenai-san's water bottle?" Michiko guessed, pointing.

"No."

"That leaf?" Goudon asked, now bored.

"No."

"_That_ leaf?" Goudon pointed at another leaf on the same tree.

"...No."

_"That_ one?"

"_No..._"

"_That_ one?"

"Aniki..."

"How about _that_ one?" Goudon asked, this time pointing at a different tree.

Pooriin glared at her older brother, then at Michiko, who was trying to stifle a giggle.

"If neither of you want to play, then just say so," Pooriin huffed, crossing her arms.

"I don't wanna play anymore," Michiko said quickly.

"Me neither," Goudon agreed.

"You guys! This was supposed to be fun!" Pooriin exclaimed.

_To a 6-year-old,_ Michiko thought.

_Chatora..._Kiba thought moodily, trying to be angry at her, and trying to suppress the urge to say that 'I spy' was still a favourite game of his, and he'd love to play with Pooriin. (A/N: ...Not like that...)

"No offence, Pooriin, but after a fourth hour, any game can get boring," Goudon said, trying not to grin.

"It wasn't four hours," Pooriin pouted, glancing at her watch, "It was...three hours and forty-eight minutes."

Michiko grinned, and Korii, who had been eavesdropping, rolled his eyes.

_Too bad Inel-sensei isn't here; he'd want to play,_ Michiko thought.

Kyou had been sent by his father, Koshinu, to get one experienced jounin for help back in the Thyme Village. Apparently, some of the guests that had been invited to the reunion were causing problems in the village, as well as a group of troublemakers that had coordinated to wreak havoc on the village during their celebration. Inel had gone ahead that morning with Kyou to take care of the problem, leaving the group still in Korii and Shino's leadership, with Kurenai watching over them. Also, Michiko stood at the right beside Goudon, taking Inel's place in the guard formation. It was now late afternoon, and no other attacks had happened.

Now, Deniizu, who was still at the front of the group, saw something in the corner of her eye.

"Korii," Deniizu said, holding her arms out to the side so that the group stopped with her.

"I know," Korii nodded, focusing his Byakugan to the left, "There's someone there about 34 feet away...two people. Two brown-haired girls that look alike."

"Are they the same from before?" Shino asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll go check," Kurenai said, stepping out of her place, thinking, _Inel-san is insane, trusting the whole group to two genins. I should go; none of them have nearly enough experience._

Korii nodded, and Kurenai walked into the woods where Korii pointed. Immediately, Kurenai could sense that there were two people directly in front of her, but with more people watching.

"Korii, is there anyone else around me?" Kurenai asked, calling back to the team, which was now quite a distance away.

Korii widened his Byakugan range and looked around Kurenai. Mentally kicking himself for focusing only on a small area, Korii saw people hidden around the new jounin.

"Yeah. Two people; one in the tree at about seven o'clock, the other in a bush at about two thirty," Korii called.

Kurenai deftly threw kunai at each place, and both strangers jumped out of their hiding places and attacked, along with the other two. The one in the tree was the boy in a long, brown coat, and the one in the bushes was the red-haired boy with the backpack of jars. Kurenai defended from all four of them easily, but something didn't feel right to her. She felt as if they were waiting for something.

"Ezu, do your thing!" the short-haired girl said.

"Not yet!" the boy in the brown coat said, "Wait for Sumoggu."

"I don't see why we don't just kill her," the other boy muttered, slashing at Kurenai's shoulder.

_I'm a hostage?_ Kurenai thought.

"Korii..." Michiko started, then frowned and stopped talking.

"Yeah," Korii nodded, "Yeah, I feel it too."

"Should we help her?" Hinata asked, concerned.

"She's handling four people just fine," Deniizu shrugged, but she felt that strange sense of foreboding too.

"...I just don't want to make a mistake," Michiko said quietly, realizing that she had unintentionally taken out a kunai.

"If more people appear, we should help," Shino said, and Korii nodded.

"It's time, Ezu!" a new voice rang out.

The genins and their clients turned and saw the Dr. Mario look-alike, the girl in the green tunic, and the girl in white all jump into the fray.

"More people," Kiba said firmly, beginning to walk towards his sensei, "Let's go."

"Ok, Michiko, Hinata, Shino, all three of you stay with the clients. Deniizu, Kiba, we'll help Kurenai-san out," Korii ordered, already running.

The others followed promptly, all of them intent on helping Kurenai, until they noticed what was happening up ahead; they froze in their places when they realized what they were seeing.

The long-haired girl, Ezu, had created an intricate seal with her hands, and ice was quickly 'growing' in tendrils around Kurenai's legs from puddles that none of them had noticed. Kurenai tried to break away, but the ice was like steel. When the tendrils of ice reached Kurenai's waist, the enemy stopped fighting and stood back to watch, satisfied looks on their faces. Korii shook his head and pushed Kiba and Deniizu lightly, getting them to move again.

"Snap out of it!" he yelled, "Shit, we have to help!"

The ice held Kurenai's arms out to the side, immobilizing her, and the boy in black stepped forward, a syringe in his hand. With a small smile and mocking salute to the jounin, he injected the clear liquid into her right forearm, and he and his team disappeared while the ice tendrils melted away, just as Korii, Deniizu and Kiba reached Kurenai.

"Cowards," Kurenai muttered, feeling herself lose control of her arms and legs.

"What did they inject?" Korii asked brusquely, catching Kurenai as she fell.

"Some kind of poison," Kurenai answered, suddenly feeling drowsy and her speech beginning to slur, "Take care...clients...the clients..."

With that last phrase, Kurenai blacked out.

NOOO! ANGST! ANGST!

That night, Korii called a group meeting around their campfire. Looking around the fire, the seating arrangement was Korii, Deniizu, Kiba, Shino, Pooriin, Goudon, Bikto, and back to Korii again. Michiko and Hinata were in a tent within hearing distance, tending to Kurenai as the group spoke.

"Looks like we're in bad shape," Korii said after a moment of awkward silence, "We've all lost our sensei. Normally I'd throw a party if Inel-sensei were away on his own personal mission, but since Kurenai-sensei is away because she's been badly poisoned, I'll try to be considerate."

"Can't Michiko heal her?" Pooriin asked.

"No," Deniizu answered flatly, poking the fire with a stick so sparks flew, "She's trying, but since she hasn't had any experience with poisons before, there's not much she can do."

Bikto smirked and shook his head.

"Medical ninjas are useless," he snickered, earning a silencing glare from his siblings.

"Is there anything you can say that's _helpful,_ Chatora?" Kiba growled, staring angrily into the fire.

"Moving right along," Korii spoke up loudly, "There's not much we can do right now, other than make a new formation and strategy to get to the Thyme village as quickly as possible. Shino, tell them the formation we discussed."

The Aburame nodded and took out a scroll from one of his pockets. He unrolled it and Korii held it up for all to see. There were symbols representing each person in their place in the new formation. Korii had the drawing of the Hyuuga branch family's cursed seal to stand for him. Deniizu had her personal symbol of an Egyptian eye, and Michiko had a weird symbol that looked like a four-leaf clover; both had drawn the symbol on all of their belongings since they were small. Kiba had a dog's pawprint with a triangular fang drawn on it, Shino had a rough sketch of a kikaichu, and Hinata had a yin-yang symbol; Kurenai simply had a 'k' with a circle around it, and the Chatora had their initials drawn in the same fashion.

"Pooriin and Bikto will carry Kurenai on her stretcher," Shino explained, pointing to the symbols that represented them, "Michiko will walk beside Kurenai to tend to her; Goudon will walk on the other side of the stretcher, with me on the outside; we still have to protect the clients. Deniizu and Korii will still be in front, and Hinata and Kiba will still be behind. There are fewer people now, and though that can make us less conspicuous to the enemy, we are also more vulnerable. All of us, even the two clients who are ninjas, will need to be on guard."

Hinata got out of the tent, walked to the group and examined the scroll's drawings for a moment before nodding. Pooriin grabbed her hand as she headed back to the tent to stop her.

"How are they?" Pooriin asked, concerned.

Kiba, Shino, Korii and Goudon looked up expectantly, as Hinata looked at the closed tent flap sadly, choosing her words.

"Michi-chan said that it's too early to tell," Hinata answered, and Pooriin let her go.

As Hinata re-entered the tent, Korii got up.

"Ok, guys. Let's get some sleep."

* * *

Itachi: Post a review. You know the drill. Just get out of my face.

A/N: (scared look, backs away slowly)


	11. Mission Day 5: Smoke

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, a silent Bikto, talking dogs or cats, smoke bombs, Dr. Mario (which I should've mentioned in past chapters, sorry!), insane dog-users-

Itachi: Enough! No-one reads disclaimers anyway! Just get on with the story!

A/N: Picky, picky...

* * *

On their fifth day of travel, everyone was silent, including Bikto. All remembered the seven ninjas from the day before; Kurenai was a living reminder. The young woman had sweat plastering her hair to her forehead; she was deathly pale, her pulse was erratic, and she wouldn't wake up, no matter what Michiko's efforts were. All the girl really knew to do was try keep her friend's sensei's temperature down with a wet cloth on her forehead and wrists.

_Maybe I can extract the poison,_ Michiko thought, walking alongside the unconscious sensei, _But how? That searching jutsu should work...Will I need to make a cut so that there's an opening for the poison to leave through? I wonder if that doctor has antidotes in the medical kit..._

"Korii," Michiko called, continuing when Korii waved to her, "How many more days until the Thyme Village?"

"One and a half," Korii answered, before turning back to the road.

_Is that enough time? _Michiko thought, _Can I leave the poison as is and let trained people work on Kurenai? But the poison is moving quickly..._

"Deniizu, wait," Korii ordered, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Why?" Deniizu asked, looking down the road, already pulling out kunai.

"I see four people, two on each side," Korii answered in a low voice, so that only the group could hear, "Eleven o'clock, one o'clock, nine and three. Put the stretcher down, Pooriin, Bikto."

"Two more at seven and five o'clock," Hinata reported, as Pooriin and Bikto obeyed.

"Surround the clients and Kurenai," Korii ordered, already moving, "Ring formation."

Korii, Michiko, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and Deniizu all stood in a circle, the five dogs stood in a slightly smaller ring on the inside, and Pooriin, Goudon, Bikto and Kurenai stood in the center. All looked straight ahead of themselves, trying to find out where the enemy was hidden.

"We know you're out there," Korii called into the surrounding woods, "Show yourselves and explain your intent."

They were met with silence, save for the wind. Hinata gulped, Pooriin wrung her hands, and Michiko frowned; all three were trying to keep a hold of her nerves. Korii, Deniizu, and Kiba were waiting expectantly; all three wanted something to beat up, though Kiba wanted to let out some anger against Bikto, while the other two had...other reasons. Shino, Bikto, and Goudon were all calm; the twins knew from experience how to deal with their fear, and Shino had had years of emotional training, even before the academy. The dogs and cats seemed calm, save for Athos, who was tense; he could smell a fight, and he was a protector like Michiko.

Guys, we have to be serious, Athos said quietly, Can you smell the danger?

All four of the dogs sniffed the air, and Porthos shook his head.

Jeez, you're almost as tense as Michi-chan, Porthos teased.

I'm not kidding, aniki! Athos protested.

Yeah, I smell it too, Akamaru and D'Artagnan nodded.

I can't, Aramis said, But I'll take your word for it.

"Get ready, boys," Michiko whispered, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Stay right with me, Akamaru," Kiba said, grinning at his companion.

Stupid dogs, getting all worked up, the silver tabby said.

Give them a break, the orange tabby said, It's their first mission.

The abrupt sound of hissing caused all present to look up at the sound's origin; instinctively, Deniizu jumped at the two, small spheres with her kunai raised.

"Deniizu, don't! It's a-" Korii and Kiba started, but it was too late.

Deniizu cut right into the objects, and smoke immediately covered the entire group.

"What was that?" Pooriin asked, as she soon lost sight of her group in the smoke.

"Two smoke bombs," Shino explained, trying to clear the smoke away by waving his arms, and only making it worse, "Cutting into them helped them spread faster."

"Sorry," Deniizu put her kunai away and reached around in the purple 'darkness', "That was a reflex. Michiko? Korii? Where are you guys?"

"Deniizu, basic ninja tools, smoke bombs, lesson one," Michiko hissed.

_Smoke bombs both hide the user's position, and disorients the enemy,_ Deniizu remembered, clamping her mouth shut, _However, though the enemy is disoriented, they must still be found; one key way to find an enemy in the smoke is sound._

_Deniizu, I'm sending Porthos to you, D'Artagnan to Korii, Athos to the Chatora, and I'll keep Aramis with me,_ Michiko thought, _Tell them so that they're not startled and won't attack my dogs._

_I hear you,_ Deniizu thought back, relaying the thoughts to each person.

Michiko got on her hands and knees, and rubbed her right index finger and thumb together, making a small sound that the dogs would hear, leading them to her. When Michiko felt Aramis' thin form, she placed him on her head for temporary safekeeping. Athos was the thick-set dog, D'Artagnan wouldn't stay still, and Porthos had the roundest head; whispering her orders to each of them, she sent them off.

_So that's what she does,_ Sumoggu thought, seeing Michiko work.

The black-clad bandit was very talented with poisons, and all that had to do with poisons. This included smoke bombs which can contain poison; Sumoggu could see a little bit better than others in thick fog or smoke. It wasn't a doujutsu, but a skill that he had developed over time; Michiko didn't know that the bandit was less than two meters away, and able to see and hear her every move.

Sumoggu knelt down and made the same sound that Michiko had with his fingers. Sure enough, all four dogs came back, including Aramis, who jumped down from Michiko's head.

"Hey, Aramis!" Michiko exclaimed, "Where are you going?"

All four dogs froze where they were, then charged straight for Michiko; Akamaru, having not heard any orders from Kiba, ran to help them. Unfortunately, Sumoggu had already seen the dogs; quickly, he grabbed each of them by the scruff of the neck and threw them towards a trap that was set to become a suspended net as soon as all five dogs were on top of it. Akamaru, the last to be caught, saw a little of what was happening and tried to bite Sumoggu, but still the white dog was thrown into the trap, and all the dogs were suspended high in the net.

"What just happened?" Michiko screamed, forgetting her advice of silence to Deniizu, "Where are my dogs?"

"Akamaru?" Kiba called, "Where are you? Hinata, can you find him?"

Hinata was shaking where she stood, trying to control her chakra and make sense of what was going on.

"It's your turn, Kishimu!" Sumoggu called calmly, jumping easily out of the smoke and into the trees when Michiko took a wild swipe at him.

"Korii, did you see the guy beside me?" Michiko yelled, starting to get annoyed.

"He's that Dr. Mario guy!" Korii answered, "Stay in your positions, guys; if they're after the twins, we can't give them any openings!"

"They still think we're, like, after those twins!" the short brown-haired girl giggled in her tree.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Kiba asked, his ears perking up.

"Emi!" the long brown-haired girl hissed, hitting her neighbour's shoulder.

"No...what did you hear, Kiba?" Korii asked.

"I don't know what they said, but I thought heard a girl's voice," Kiba answered.

"That was, like, close," Emi sighed, relieved.

"Hearing voices now, Inuzuka?" Bikto asked caustically.

"Shut up, Chatora!" Kiba growled.

Kiba had been completely blind in the smoke, but suddenly it was clearing away.

"Hey, I can see a little!" Kiba exclaimed, "The smoke is going away now!"

"What are you talking about, ahou?" Bikto asked, "Nothing's changing."

"No, it's true," Michiko protested, "I'm seeing clearer too."

Michiko and Kiba were side by side; Hinata looked around on the other side of Kiba, while Korii looked around on the other side of Michiko.

"Ano...Bikto's right," Hinata said quietly, "Nothing's changing."

"Yeah, I still need my Byakugan," Korii added.

"Guys, we're serious," Michiko said, "We can see better."

"The dog-users are going insane," Bikto snickered to himself.

"Michiko, something's not right," Deniizu said, looking around wildly in the smoke, "The smoke, if anything, is getting worse."

Deniizu was right; the smoke was getting denser. Michiko and Kiba, however, could see perfectly fine.

"I see someone in the woods there!" Kiba exclaimed, pointing, "I'm going!" he added, running into the forest.

"Kiba, wait!" Michiko called, running after him, "You need back-up!"

The group heard two soft thumps on the ground, and Korii and Hinata saw that both Kiba and Michiko had collapsed.

"They're unconscious," Hinata reported, after checking on them.

"Korii, what happened to them?" Shino asked, tersely.

"Pay attention to your own fight," a girl's voice advised ominously in the gloom.

"Where are you?" Deniizu snapped, waving her kunai around.

The telepath stepped forward to where she thought the voice had come from, trying to locate the speaker. Unwittingly, she stepped on a part of the ground that caved in under her, causing her to fall until she was waist deep in the dirt, and unable to move. She felt dirt being thrown around her, causing her to be partly buried and stuck where she was. Deniizu tried to hit at whoever was kicking dirt at her, but to no avail.

"Crap, I'm stuck!" Deniizu yelled, "Try not to trip over me!"

"Oh, I won't trip," a high girl's voice said from above Deniizu, "That's, like, so uncool. I'll just hit you. Bye-bye!"

"Wha-" was all that Deniizu could get out before the girl knocked her unconscious.

Hinata was frozen in her place beside Michiko; she was kneeling beside her friend, trying to protect her, but at the same time she was too afraid to move. Korii had his hands full with what seemed to be two attackers; one was continually dousing him with scalding hot water, and another was pelting him with what felt like balls of sticky grains. One of the 'grain bombs' had gotten him right in the eyes; try as he might, Korii couldn't pull away the gummy substance.

_Damn..._Korii thought, _I've been slacking for too long; I'm not used to using the Byakugan this much. ...Deniizu..._

"Bikto, we have to help them out!" Goudon said, already dropping his oversized backoack and pulling out his dagger.

"It's their mission, they can handle it," Bikto tsked, sitting down crosslegged on the ground.

"Get up!" Goudon ordered, kicking his brother in the side.

"Piss off," Bikto shrugged, being aggravatingly calm.

Goudon continued to try and get Bikto to help, and as they argued, Pooriin crawled away towards where she hoped Michiko and Hinata were, narrowly missing one other smoke bomb that landed nearby the twins.

"What was that?" Bikto interrupted Goudon in mid-argument.

As the twins looked around, trying to find the source of the small, quiet landing, a dark green smoke began to appear around them.

"What is this?" Goudon wondered out loud, "Just differently coloured smoke?"

Bikto had been feeling around for whatever had fallen; his hands came across the still form of one of the cats.

"Don't breathe it in!" Bikto exclaimed, right before taking a quick breath in and holding it.

Too late; some of the extra air that Bikto had just taken in had contained some of the poison, and Goudon had already accidentally breathed the gas in. The twins felt the life in their bodies ebb away, so that they no longer could move; both were still conscious, but neither could do anything to attack or defend from the enemy.

_At least this is one way to not help that Inuzuka and his team,_ Bikto thought.

Shino felt wind and feathers brush against his face, and in an instant, a great bird of some sort was attacking him. Shino shielded his face and neck with his arms, trying to dodge and attack at the same time, but he couldn't see. The bug-user tried sending out kikaichu to form that jutsu that his father had told him about once: the Bug Jar Technique; but since Shino only had a vague idea of what the technique was, he ended up losing several bugs to the bird's talons before he called them back again.

"Somebody use a wind-type jutsu and clear the smoke away!" Shino exclaimed, half-screaming in pain when the bird got a good scrape near his eyes.

"Michiko, wake up," Pooriin begged, shaking her friend by the shoulders, "Hinata, what can we do?"

Hinata held her head between her hands as she shook it; she was too afraid that her helping would make matters worse. Her father's discouraging words echoed in her mind as she tried to pull herself together and fight.

* * *

A/N: CLIFFHANGER ENDING OF DOOM! AND I'M LATE FOR CLASS NOW! BYE!

Isaac: Why can't you be like me and _skip_...tsk. Review, reader.


	12. Mission Day 5: Genjutsu

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the concept or idea of genjutsu, dysfunctional team members or friends, and various other special things that are in this chapter.

A/N: Please note: '_(fwip)_' means that there's a change in scene, but it's at that exact moment. In a book, it would simply be a gap between paragraphs, but this isn't a book; this is Fanfiction.

Itachi: (just glares at reader, gives off evil aura that means 'read the chapter or die')

A/N: ...I hate it when he glares like that. It's scary.

* * *

"Dammit!" Kiba yelled, falling to his knees and punching his fists against the ground. 

Michiko sighed when she caught up to him, and put her hands on her hips, looking around the woods. They had lost the bandits that they had been chasing.

"Kiba, you shouldn't have run without thinking," Michiko scolded lightly, "This is like a mistake _I_ would do. We were lucky there were no traps set for us this time."

"Shut up," Kiba grumbled, pressing his forehead into the ground, "I _want_ to make my life worse."

"Oh, don't go all emo on me," Michiko exclaimed, nudging her friend with her toe, "Now get up! Let's go back and help the others."

"You're calling me emo?" Kiba growled, grabbing Michiko's ankle and flooring her, "This is the girl who was all 'Shaun hates me' a few days ago!"

"Oh, so you being all 'Pooriin is a Chatora' right after you saw the way I acted is better?" Michiko snapped back, kicking him hard in the hip.

"Don't get me angry!" Kiba snarled, tackling Michiko, grabbing her shoulders, rolling, and throwing her to the side.

"Like you're not angry already!" Michiko growled, landing on her feet and using the Body Flicker Technique as Kiba stood up to get right in front of him, and punched him in the gut, "Don't blame _me_ for your emo problems!"

"I'M NOT EMO!" Kiba yelled, grabbing Michiko by the throat with one hand.

Michiko grabbed Kiba around the throat in the same way, so both of them were stuck, waiting for the other to start squeezing. Michiko glared icily at Kiba, making ominous sounds in her throat; Kiba was snarling right back, with an irate look in his eyes that dared her to try and kill him. After a moment, both blinked, and simultaneously they dropped their hands and looked away in shame.

"I'm sorry," Michiko whispered, rubbing her upper arm, embarrassed.

"Yeah," Kiba muttered, scratching the back of his neck, "Me too."

A minute of silence passed, then both got the courage to look back at the other and speak again.

"You hit like a girl," Kiba said converationally, putting a hand where Michiko had punched him, "Oh, wait...you _are_ a girl..."

"Don't make me call you emo again," Michiko warned, shaking a fist at him good-naturedly.

The two friends laughed together, but then their moment was gone. At the same time, both turned their heads as they heard footsteps crashing and weapons clanging together. The sound was getting louder; the others must be taking the battle towards them. A kunai whizzed through the trees; Kiba caught it by the handle before it hit Michiko in the forehead.

"Oh, thanks," Michiko grinned, adjusting her forehead protector so that it was not longer around her neck, but on her forehead.

"No problem," Kiba grinned back, holding the kunai so that he could use it now.

Both got serious at the same time and got into their fighting stances; they crouched on all fours, side by side, with Kiba facing one way, and Michiko facing the other, acting as back-up.

"I wish Akamaru were here," Kiba muttered.

"I know what you mean," Michiko nodded, thinking of her own small pack.

Both waited, listening as the battle got closer, and waiting for their chance to step in.

What's happening? Who's in the battle approaching them? What's going on? AAH! ...I mean..._(fwip)_

"Hinata, please help!" Pooriin yelled, tears of frustration and fear going down her cheeks.

The young Chatora was still shaking Michiko's shoulders, trying to wake her up. Hinata was crouched and hugging herself; she could still hear her father scorning her.

"Hinata, _please_!" Pooriin begged again, "You know I can't fight!"

_Goudon, where are you?_ Pooriin thought frantically, _I can't fight without you..._

_(fwip)_

"'Can't fight'?" Sumoggu murmured to himself from a treebranch a safe distance away, "That could prove useful..."

"Sumoggu-san?"

Sumoggu turned and saw Ruko, the boy in the long, brown coat, and Ezu looking at him, their leader, for more instructions. Ezu was holding a hand-held mirror of ice; she had finished setting up her jutsu and was ready to use it.

"We'll take two hostages," Sumoggu said, with a wan smile, "The one in pink, and our special bonus."

_(fwip)_

Michiko and Kiba didn't have to wait long for the fight to appear; that didn't surprise them considering how fast it was moving. What _did_ surprise them was who it was.

"_Shino_?" Michiko exclaimed, her jaw dropping, "And _Korii?_"

"What the hell are you doing?" Kiba yelled, he and Michiko getting up, "Why are you fighting each other?"

Shino and Korii were both battling as if to the death; Shino held two kunai, and Korii held his curved sword with both hands. Both were wounded and bleeding freely in many places, but neither seemed to slack his pace at blows.

"He tried to join the enemy's ranks when he thought we were losing!" Shino accused breathlessly, still fighting.

"Don't pin what you did on _me_," Korii snarled, parrying yet another attack and throwing one of his own.

"Guys...guys, _stop_," Michiko begged, jumping up and standing beside the two fighters with her hands forward, trying to figure out what to do, "Guys, we're a team. Stop fighting!"

Kiba stepped forward to help, then turned around; more people were fighting in the other direction.

"You don't know what he said, Michiko," Shino said, trying to find an opening in Korii's attacks, "You don't know what he did."

"He's lying!" Korii exclaimed, still parrying, "He's the traitor, not me!"

"Kiba, a little-" Michiko started, turning to her friend.

"Sorry, Michiko, I'll be right back," Kiba interrupted hurriedly, having heard a scream that sounded too familiar.

Ignoring Michiko's protests, Kiba ran into the forest in the opposite direction that Shino and Korii had come from. There, he found-

"_Hinata?_" Kiba exclaimed, freezing in his place and his jaw dropping, "And _Pooriin_? What the hell are you doing? Why are you fighting each other?"

"Kiba, help me!" Pooriin cried, struggling to dodge Hinata's Juuken attacks.

"Hinata, stop!" Kiba yelled, "Stop! Why are you doing this?" he asked, trying to grab Hinata's arms.

Hinata elbowed Kiba swiftly, knocking the breath out of him and sending him a couple steps back.

_What is going on?_ Kiba thought, _Hinata's never like this...genjutsu! Is it genjutsu?_

Kiba put his right hand's index and middle fingers together, forming the concentration 'seal', and he closed his eyes, focusing on disrupting his chakra flow.

_Please work!_ Kiba thought as he opened his eyes, _...yes!_

Kiba was back in the purple cloud of smoke, with the group.

_It _was_ a genjutsu!_ Kiba thought ecstatically, sniffing the air, _Now to find Akamaru and-_

"Kiba, Hinata's trying to kill me!" Pooriin exclaimed.

Kiba sweatdropped; he was back in the forest, and Hinata had just hit Pooriin in the stomach with Juuken.

"How did..."

Kiba let his voice trail off, seeing how Hinata had pinned Pooriin to a tree and was now pulling out a kunai. Not wanting to see what happened next, Kiba shut his eyes and tried disrupting his chakra again.

"Back!" Kiba whooped, sitting up in the purple smoke.

"What have you got to be happy about?" Korii roared, feeling his already scalded skin get worse.

"I'll help you in a sec!" Kiba called, sniffing the air for Korii's scent, "I...KUSO!!"

Kiba found himself in the woods with Pooriin and Hinata, yet again.

"It must be scent," Kiba nodded to himself, "The genjutsu targets the nose using scent. I hate that."

"Kiba, help me!" Pooriin cried, trying to hold Hinata's kunai back.

Kiba looked at his girlfriend, half regretfully, half knowing that the whole thing was fake. He hesitated, then shook his head and disrupted his chakra for what would (hopefully) be the last time.

_(fwip)_

The real Pooriin was getting the growing sense that something was about to make the situation much, much worse. Standing up, she squinted, trying to make out objects or people through the thick smoke. Suddenly, and hand clamped over her mouth, too secure for her to struggle out of it, and a kunai was held at her throat; Hinata was going through the same situation.

"Please just come with us; I don't want to slit your throat open," a voice hissed at Pooriin's ear.

Kicking, scratching, and trying to scream, Pooriin continued struggling against her captor as she was dragged away. The other kidnapper had an easier job; Hinata had fainted dead away.

_Kuso, my eyes are getting dry,_ Goudon thought, oblivious to what was happening with his sister, _I wish I could blink!_

_(fwip)_

Sumoggu smirked where he sat, seeing the two hostages being taken, and gave a hand signal for his group to retreat. Their work was done for the day.

_(fwip)_

Korii felt the water stop splashing him, and Shino realized that the bird had now flown away.

"Guys, are you all alive?" Korii called, still trying to pry the sticky substance from his eyes.

"Yes," Shino called.

"Yeah," Kiba called, waking up again, "Korii, Bijigo needs helb." (Translation: Korii, Michiko needs help.)

"Why do you sound like that?" Korii asked, trying to walk towards Kiba, then, realizing that his feet appeared to be covered with the gummy substance, immobilizing him, "Crap."

"Id's a log shtory, buh to bood id shord..." Kiba started, keeping his nose pinched shut. (Translation: It's a long story, but to put it short...)

_(fwip)_

Michiko had had enough; she grabbed Shino's arms and turned her head back to Korii.

"Stop fighting, both of you...Korii, NO!"

Korii took this chance to run Shino through with his sword; Michiko stared, unbelieving, as Shino fell to his knees, dragging her down with him.

"Oh my...Korii, what have you done?" Michiko whispered, holding Shino's face between her hands.

"Michiko...Michiko..." Shino murmured, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

"No, no, don't talk; you'll make it worse-" Michiko started, then felt Korii's bloody sword at her neck.

"You've betrayed me too," Korii said menacingly, raising his sword again to swing it right at Michiko.

"Korii, please," Michiko whispered, still looking at Shino, "_Please!_"

"I will suffer no traitors," Korii shrugged, and his sword came down.

* * *

Michiko, Hinata: NOOOOOO!

Pooriin: I'm gonna cry! (sob)

Deniizu: COOL! A bloody sword!

Shino: ...That's _my_ blood.

Itachi, Korii: ...

A/N: What happens next? What's going on? ...you know that people can die for real in a properly made genjutsu, right? Review, please!


	13. Mission Day 5: Aftermath

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, genjustu, purple smoke, Korii's eloquence, a hand of water, the kikaichu's poison 1337-ness, the fact that Denise lit her Christmas tree on fire once...

Isaac: True fact. I was there.

(continuing)...paralysis antidote pills, or a cow. That's right...a cow.\

A/N: Ok, I _meant_ to update sooner, but then the world exploded and...alright, by 'world exploded' I meant 'the bell signifying that the period was over rang.' The periods were shortened that day, so I didnt' have as much time as I would have liked. And I was being distracted by several people. And yesterday, a class was in the library, so I couldn't use the computers (teardrop). But I'm here now! Yay! Onto chapter 13...

* * *

"NOOOOO!" Michiko screamed, as she woke up from the genjutsu, "NO! NO!" 

"Michiko, relax!" Korii exclaimed, then held an arm up to shield himself as Michiko punched randomly around.

"You...You...You...!" Michiko cried out, hitting Korii's arm over and over again, before she realized where she was, "You...huh? I...purple smoke...And..."

Michiko looked around wildly, and her gaze fell on the person who had dragged Korii over to her to release the genjutsu.

"Shino!" Michiko breathed, grabbing him in a hug, "You're not dead! But...why are you all bloody? And..." Michiko released Shino, looked at her team leader, and she became normal again, "Korii, there's white, sticky stuff all over you. ...And that came out wrong. ...As did that...ugh..."

Michiko flopped back onto the ground and listened to Korii's eloquent explanation.

"Genjutsu," Korii said simply, shrugging.

Korii didn't like explaining things in too much detail without being told to do so. However, since Michelle and Corey had known each other for a long time in the other world, Michiko knew what Korii meant: she and Kiba had been caught in a genjutsu, which is why Shino wasn't really dead.

"And the white stuff?" Michiko asked, noting that there was still some smoke in the air, but it was clearing quickly.

"No idea," Korii said, already trying to pick it off of his eyes again.

"It looks like rice," Michiko observed, looking at it closely, then got serious, "Where are Kiba, Deniizu and everyone?"

Michiko jumped up, and looked around the road; she took out a handheld fan from her bookbag and wafted air away from herself, so that the smoke kept out of her field of vision. Kiba was trying to cut down the net that the five dogs were caught in, while Deniizu was awkwardly lying facedown on the ground, half buried into the dirt road. Shino had left Michiko and Korii as soon as she had let him go, and he was now kneeling in the midst of Goudon, Bikto, and their cats' still forms. Shino also noted that there was a small puddle of water with a thin sheet of ice floating on it, which was near where Hinata and Pooriin had been standing. Michiko decided to check on Deniizu first; the telepath wasn't moving. Michiko knelt beside her friend and raised her up gently; after a quick look, Michiko saw that Deniizu had been hit at the back of the head. There was a small wound with just a little blood, but it was more of a cut from the attacker's weapon than anything serious. Michiko used healing jutsu to fix the cut, then gently shook Deniizu by the shoulders. Getting no response, Michiko turned one of her hands into water and slapped Deniizu with it. Kiba, having just freed the dogs, watched in interest as Michiko's hand splashed apart.

"Whoa, isn't that dangerous?" Kiba exclaimed, pointing at the stump that was left at Michiko's wrist.

"Kiba, tell D'Artagnan and Athos to eat the stuff on Korii," Michiko ordered, making the water form onto her wrist and return into its 'hand shape' before slapping Deniizu again, "If the rice is poisoned or anything, they should still be ok; I've been training a food poisoning immunity in them."

"Ok," Kiba agreed unsurely, and turned to his own task.

After the third 'slap', Deniizu began to wake up; at the fourth, the green-eyed girl pushed Michiko away irritably.

"I'm up already!" Deniizu grumbled, wiping at her face, though it was dry, "Shit, Michiko, think of better ways to revive people."

"I thought my way was kind of cool," Michiko protested, reforming her water hand and changing it into normal flesh again.

"...Hey, that _is_ cool," Deniizu agreed, watching Michiko's hand change forms, "But still. Don't do it again."

Michiko smiled weakly, then walked to where Korii was; Deniizu waited while Akamaru, Aramis and Porthos dug her up before following Michiko. Shino was still hunched over the twins, trying to revive them; Deniizu was about to help Shino, but after a stern look and a dismissing motion from Shino, she changed her mind and continued walking to Korii.

Michiko had activated her healing jutsu as soon as she took a good look at Korii's condition. Korii's body was covered in burns from all the hot water jutsus that had been thrown at him.

"At least I can heal _these_," Michiko thought out loud as she healed Korii's arms.

"How can you heal burns and not cure poisons?" Kiba asked curiously.

"Deniizu's a pyro," Michiko answered glibly, earning a punch in the arm from Deniizu, "_What?_ It's true!"

"Well...yeah, but still-" Deniizu argued.

"Pyro," Michiko interrupted, starting to heal the burns on Korii's legs.

"I am not-" Deniizu started.

"Pyro."

"No! Stop say-"

"Pyro."

"Michi-"

"Pyro."

Michiko turned away, smiling inwardly as she walked towards where Shino was. Deniizu glared at the back of Michiko's head, then turned to Korii.

"Are you ok?" she asked in a low voice, after making sure no-one else in the group was watching.

"Yeah..." Korii looked at her questioningly.

"You sure?" Deniizu asked, "You were just burnt a moment ago."

"Yeah, but Michiko healed me, so I'm ok," Korii said, wondering what was up with Deniizu.

"Ok...Just checking," Deniizu said awkwardly.

"Of course," Korii nodded, also awkwardly, "We're a team, and all that..."

"Yeah," Deniizu agreed.

"Yeah," Korii said again.

Neither looked at each other for a moment, then Korii hooked a finger under Deniizu's chin and raised her face slightly. Both of them looked into the others eyes for a moment, saying and doing nothing.

"...What?" Deniizu asked quietly.

"...Nothing," Korii said looking down and pulling his hand away.

Deniizu stared at Korii for a second, then shook her head to clear it and looked around the road for the other group members. She had been wondering why she didn't hear Pooriin and Hinata giggling at her and Michiko's antics, or why Bikto wasn't saying something uncalled for. Shino was between Goudon and Bikto, who were still lying on the ground, and Kurenai was near them, still on her stretcher. Michiko had been half-smiling after teasing Deniizu, but now it faded away when she saw how Deniizu's emotions were quickly changing. After spending so much time with her friend, Michiko could judge from Deniizu's posture and walk how she was feeling. Deniizu walked into the neighbouring woods, just close enough so that the group could see her for safety, yet as far as that limit could take her; from the deliberate way she was stepping, and from her slight crouch, Michiko could see that Deniizu was getting angry.

"Don't come any closer," Shino warned when Michiko approached, "There's a paralyzing poison in the air. It got the twins, and I'm not sure if Kurenai-sensei was affected too."

Michiko pulled a surgeon's mask out of her medical kit and put it over her nose and mouth.

"How are _you_ not affected?" Michiko asked, signalling for her dogs to stay back as she knelt beside Shino.

"My kikaichu can get render some minor poisons harmless," Shino explained, as Michiko used her scanning jutsu on Goudon, "...can you heal this?"

"No," Michiko answered, sounding muffled because of her mask, while looking through her medical kit and pulling out a bottle of something, "But since this poison is basic, I can use some of the stuff that I have in this kit."

Michiko opened the bottle and took one of the small, brown pills that it stored. Shino glanced at the label and saw that it was a cure against paralysis. Michiko opened Goudon's mouth for him, and was about to put the pill in his mouth, when she stopped herself.

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked, calling from a distance.

"He can't chew it," Michiko answered, "I'll choke him if I just give him this pill."

All of the group thought for a minute, trying to think of a solution, when Deniizu called to Michiko from the woods.

"Michiko, remember that ninja that visited the Tea Village a couple months before we left?" Deniizu asked.

Michiko reflected on that, then nodded. She put the pill into Goudon's left hand, and lay sideways at Goudon's left side, with her back towards his body. Michiko put her right shoulder onto Goudon's right shoulder, still lying sideways, and then waited.

"...What're you doing?" Kiba asked, suddenly bored, but Korii shushed him and they continued watching.

Michiko took a few deep breaths, then closed her eyes. After more waiting, Michiko's shoulder started sinking into Goudon's, and as Michiko rolled backwards onto him, she seemed to be absorbed into Goudon's body. Shino watched silently, trying to make sense of what was happening, and Kiba stepped forwards instinctively, only to be stopped by Korii. The Four Musketeers began to run towards Michiko to 'protect' her from what was happening, but Deniizu stopped them with her bloodline limit.

"Korii, you guys can go ahead," Michiko said, her shoulder just merged with Goudon's, "Leave my dog team, and maybe one other person as a precaution; we'll catch up later. This will take a while."

When Michiko was done speaking, Deniizu rejoined the group, having fully searched the surrounding area.

"Shino, you stay with her," Korii ordered, "As soon as she's done with the client, she can heal you."

"Michiko, Korii," Deniizu said in a low voice, "Where are Hinata and Pooriin?"

Michiko winced, but took another deep breath and concentrated on joining with Goudon; neither she nor Korii answered Deniizu while Shino and Kiba packed Michiko's medical kit. Korii glanced at Michiko, then looked up at the sky; evening was falling.

"Ok," Korii sighed, getting up, "I was planning on stopping soon before we got attacked anyway."

"Guys, where are Hinata and Pooriin?" Deniizu asked again, her tone getting harder.

"Deniizu, you and Kiba can carry Kurenai," Korii instructed, "I'll lead the way and try to cover you," he added, making three Kage Bunshin of himself, "I'll leave stone signs on the ground so you know where to go, Michiko, Shino."

"What happened to Hinata and Pooriin?" Deniizu finally yelled.

"What do you think?" Shino asked roughly, rising from his crouch slowly and turning to the young kunoichi, "They're gone. The enemy kidnapped them."

"Let's move out, guys," Korii said in a dull monotone that matched everyone's mood.

Michiko dug her fingers into the ground beside her, her whole arm now inside Goudon's, trying to control her emotions and continue melding with her client. Kiba squeezed her arm in a reassuring way before picking up one end of the stretcher, but try as she might, Michiko couldn't stop her tears from falling.

ANGST! And before we continue here's ruroni

(Yo review and tell us your favorite original character or I will keep writing this in the middle of the chapters forever and ever)

"What was Michiko doing?" Kiba asked Deniizu, while they were setting up camp.

Deniizu looked up from making the fire, and saw that both of her companions were looking at her, expecting an explanation. Deniizu sighed and spoke while continuing to make a campfire.

"A month or so before we left, a team of Konoha ninjas passed through the Tea Village. That's how we found out about becoming kunoichi. But one day, one of the shinobi had gotten into a fight with one of the villagers. Michiko had been walking some of her dogs at the time, and when she saw the fight, she panicked. I think the shinobi was cheating and using jutsus or something. Anyway, Michiko jumped at the shinobi, and meant to just land on his back and knock him down. But...you know how her bloodline limit is linked to her emotions? When she gets desperate, that also triggers her bloodlimit; instead of landing _on_ the guy, she somehow entered _into_ him. She was able to control his body for a little while, so that's what she's trying to do with Goudon. ...I just hope she doesn't faint right after she gets out of him; that's what happened in the village."

(fwip)

Since she was using chakra, instead of her emotions to trigger her ability, and she didn't use this ability much, it took a long time for Michiko to be fully inside of Goudon's body.

_Kamisama, this is an odd feeling,_ Goudon thought.

_I know what you mean,_ Michiko thought, _I don't do this very often._

Now part of Goudon, Michiko could use his muscles and move for him; Michiko moved Goudon's hand, put the pill in his mouth, chewed for him, swallowed for him, then got out of his body. Having taken care of Goudon, Michiko did the same for Bikto, then went into Kurenai, to check and make sure that there were no new poisons in her. Kurenai _did_ have a few paralyzers in her, so Michiko gave her a pill before next checking on Shino. Looking at the sky, they both saw that it was dark.

"Are you sure the poison didn't affect you?" Michiko asked Shino.

Shino nodded, and Michiko activated her healing jutsu to heal the gouges on Shino's arms, neck and face.

"Can you take off your sunglasses?" Michiko asked, seeing that there were more wounds around Shino's eyes.

"You can heal just fine while I have them on," Shino answered stiffly.

Michiko sighed and healed the flesh around his eyes, and Shino thought he heard her mutter "stubborn" and "baka" a few times.

What is underneath those sunglasses?

That night, there was another group meeting around the campfire. Michiko sat near the stretcher Kurenai was on, examining a sample of the injected poison with her chakra; the pill she had given Kurenai hadn't done much to the poison. Korii and Kiba sat beside her, Deniizu sat on the other side of Korii, Shino sat on the other side of Deniizu, and then there were the two Chatora, with Goudon between Kiba and Bikto. The Four Musketeers were in the tent with Kurenai, guarding her, and Akamaru lay in front of Kiba and Michiko, near the fire. The four cats wandered around the fire disinterestedly. After staring into the fire for a long, dramatic amount of time, Goudon turned to the Kiba and Shino.

"Why do you think they took Pooriin and Hinata?" Goudon asked roughly; he'd been in a foul mood since the poison left him.

"I don't know about Pooriin," Kiba said quietly, "But for Hinata it's obvious; she had a powerful bloodline limit, and she an heiress to her clan."

Michiko linked her arms with Kiba and leaned against him, try to take away a little of his sadness; he'd been melancholy during the whole trip to the camp, and hadn't said much while they were setting up.

"Does anyone know why they took Pooriin?" Korii asked, throwing bits of dried grass into the fire.

"If I did, I would've given it to them by now," Goudon growled, thinking, _I just want my sister back!_

_Somebody's a drama king,_ Deniizu thought.

"I have no idea," Michiko said, answering Korii's question, "I just thought they were after the twins."

"Me too," Deniizu agreed.

"Good job," Bikto said sarcastically, "You're really doing your mission well."

"Bikto, not now," Goudon said menacingly, but his brother paid no heed.

"Let them keep her," Bikto shrugged, "For all I care, she's more useful there."

"How can you say that?" Michiko exclaimed, horrified at his attitude, "She's your little sister!"

Bikto merely shrugged, closing his eyes and leaning back on the log behind him. Michiko glared at him, and seemed about to answer back, but Kurenai made a gurgling moan, and Michiko quickly ran to help her. Korii and Shino conversed quietly for a moment, then Korii spoke up again.

"Ok, here's the thing: Our mission is to safely take the _three_ Chatora," here Korii looked at Bikto, "...to their family reunion. We'll fail our mission and not get paid if we only get to the Thyme Village with two. Obviously, we have to find Pooriin. We also need to get Hinata because she's part of our team. However, we have a huge complication here."

Korii pointed at the stretcher, and all seven of the ninja looked at Kurenai. The young woman was still pale and hadn't awakened yet; Michiko was now administering different kinds of pills to her.

"Will that wake her up?" Deniizu asked.

"I don't know; I wouldn't count on it," Michiko answered, returning to the group, "It affects _most_ of the components of the poison, but there are a few more parts that I don't understand. Yet," she added, after a moment, but looking none too sure; Michiko rubbed her face with her hands tiredly, "I don't know most of what I'm doing," she whispered, "I need lessons, or I need to study this; I've never dealt with poison before."

"I hope you don't kill her," Bikto said maliciously, and Michiko flinched and hugged her knees, looking towards Kurenai.

"Shut up, teme," Kiba growled, "She's doing all she can."

"But she's useless just the same; the woman hasn't changed at all," Bikto countered with an unkind smile.

A kunai thudded into the log, less than an inch away from Bikto's head, level with his eyes. The 15-year-old's eyes snapped open, and he looked around angrily, wondering who threw it.

_Denise, calm down,_ Korii thought, caught in a death glare match with the girl.

_I hate this guy!_ Deniizu thought back, _He's such a bastard!_

_True as that may be, you can't kill him. He's our client._

_Screw him being the client-_

_No, you do not want to screw the client. Now shut up for a second; I have to explain our plan since Shino sure as hell won't._

The conversation had lasted only a couple seconds; speech in thought is much faster than actually speaking.

"Could everyone just relax?" Goudon was saying.

The boy was fiddling with a kunai, making it seem as if he should take his own advice, but Shino realized it was a hint for himself. Slowly, Shino moved his hand away from his belt pouch; Deniizu had done what Shino had planned on doing. Everyone turned back to Korii and Shino, and the older boy continued.

"Our group has to split up later. Tomorrow, Kiba and Deniizu will scout out to see where the other group is based. At around noon, they'll come back here and we'll make further plans from what they'll learn."

"I'm not going."

All of them turned to Kiba, who had spoken up; he had said it quietly, but he had said it. Kiba crossed his arms adamantly.

"I'm not helping that..." Kiba hesitated, then choked out, "Chatora. She's a Chatora."

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Goudon mumbled.

"You make it sound like it isn't," Kiba snarled, and both boys jumped up angrily.

The two genins charged each other at the same time. Shino and Korii jumped up and held both of them back; somehow they managed to settle them down again.

"You have to talk to Kiba later," Korii whispered to the Michiko, when they were sitting on the ground again, "He won't listen to anyone else, and Kiba _has_ to scout; he's the best person for the job."

"If you can get Deniizu to talk to Goudon, I'll talk to Kiba," Michiko promised, and Korii spoke to the whole group again.

"We need to discuss the enemy. How many of them are there, and what can they do? We know there are no ordinary bandits, though Shino and I didn't see anything. Both of us were blinded, but we know that one of them has trippy 'rice jutsu', another is a poisoner, another uses water jutsus, and another has a big bird of some kind."

"I think it was a falcon," Michiko said, "The claw marks on Shino looked smaller than an eagle or hawks."

"Ok, he has a fast, big bird," Korii nodded, "Anything else?"

"One's definitely a genjutsu user," Kiba said, sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right," Korii nodded, "Using what sense?"

"Smell," Kiba answered, "I kept falling back into it because of that."

"Stupid dogs with their sensitive noses," Bikto chuckled, and Shino gave Kiba a warning look that said 'Stay quiet'.

"I saw nothing," Deniizu said ruefully, "I got knocked out from behind. But I'd like to know how I sank like that."

Kiba spoke to Akamaru for a moment, then spoke up.

"He says there were about seven people. Two carried off Hinata and...the Chatora, one dropped the smoke bombs, another knocked out Deniizu, one was hiding in the trees and sending out smells from jars, and two were attacking Korii," Kiba reported.

"Seven on seven," the Hyuuga muttered to himself for a little bit, then addressed the whole group properly, "We all have to be ninjas now; there are no longer any clients while we rescue Hinata and Pooriin. I call the rice freak."

"Poisoner's mine," Michiko said quickly, "I'll get the antidote from him."

"Genjutsu-user's mine, then," Kiba said, "I owe him one."

"No, not you," Deniizu shook her head, "You don't stand a chance if it targets scent. I'll go."

Kiba started to argue, but Michiko poked him.

"Just let it go, Kiba," Michiko advised, "Deniizu's a natural genjutsu-user. You and Akamaru's best match would be the guy with the falcon."

"Fine," Kiba grumbled, but he still didn't sit down.

"I'll take the water jutsu specialist," Goudon volunteered.

"Aren't cats afraid of water?" Korii asked.

"Not mine," Goudon declared, so Korii nodded and turned to Shino and Bikto.

"You two have the hardest jobs. Both of you don't know what your man does. Are you up to it?"

Shino nodded, and Bikto shrugged carelessly. Korii looked around the group thoughtfully, then nodded again; this time to himself.

"All right then. Let's get ready for the night."

* * *

A/N: ANGST! 

Itachi: ...

Michiko: Whatever.

A/N: ANGST!

Itachi: ...

Michiko: You can stop now.

A/N: ANGST! MICHIKO IS AN ANGSTY HOBBIT!

Itachi: ...(blink)

Michiko: ...I'm not even going to ask where that came from.

A/N: Eh...just review. I'm hungry. I need some lunch.


	14. Mission Day 5: Relations

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, good brother-sister relations (I only have an 'ok' one), an emo Kiba, a random Korii moment, an ice dome (seriously, _coool)_, stray green-haired people, or a clan of unrelated people.

Itachi: (again, the death glare)

A/N: Seriously, stop that!

Itachi: (focuses glare on Esperwen)

A/N: Um...(scared) I mean...continue glaring! I don't mind!

* * *

Kiba and Michiko had the first watch that night. Both of them walked together along the camp's perimeter with the dogs running around them. Michiko looked at her friend concernedly, Kiba once again looked depressed. Michiko linked arms with her friend, knowing that now was not one of those times to try and cheer Kiba up yet.

"Why are you pretending that you hate her?" Michiko asked softly, "You're only hurting yourself."

Kiba gritted his teeth, not in the mood to talk, and threw Michiko off of his arm. Michiko fell to the ground and rolled backwards several feet, before managing to stop herself.

"What do you know?" he asked, raising his voice, "You've never been part of a family feud! You don't know what it's like!"

"Picky, picky," Michiko sniffed, picking herself up off of the ground slowly, only to get knocked down by a quick kick to the side, "Ok, OW! That was uncalled for!" she exclaimed, letting her temper rise. Unfortunately, this time violence was the solution if she wanted to get through to Kiba.

"Neither is you sticking your nose into other people's business," Kiba growled.

"If it were none of my business, you wouldn't react so much," Michiko snapped back, jumping up and getting into a fighter's crouch, standing on all fours in the classic Inuzuka style Hana had taught her, "Now talk to me!" she growled, launching herself at him.

"Fine!" Kiba yelled, quickly making the same crouch and rushing to meet her halfway.

Both were angry with the other; both had had fights like this before. The rules were simple: no clawing or biting, just plain punches and kicks. No ninjutsu, no weapons, no help; just the two people. And of course, no dirty, underhanded tricks or killing. Other than that, it was a free-for-all.

Kiba reached out to slug Michiko right on her jaw, but his movement was obvious, and Michiko twisted out of the way and landed a kick on Kiba's shoulder. Throughout the whole scrap, both were yelling their lungs out at each other. The five dogs, having seen all this before, knew that they couldn't help, and hurried away into the trees, away from the brawl.

"What's it matter to you what happens between me and my girlfriend?"

"What do you think, baka? You're both my friends! You'd try to help me if you were in my place!"

Michiko ducked a punch, then gasped when Kiba kicked her hard in the shin. In retaliation, Michiko landed a punch on Kiba's chest, knocking the wind out of him.

"What makes you so sure, bitch? Maybe I'd be happy if I saw Shino hating you!"

"You jerk!" Michiko slapped him hard across the face, "I _know_ you! You're just being emo again! If I ever-Unh!"

Michiko doubled over when Kiba's fist came directly into her stomach, causing her to land on the ground and tumble backwards several feet.

"I told you not to call me emo!" Kiba roared, rushing over to Michiko and attempting to land another punch in her stomach again.

"You're a guy that acts like he's PMS-ing, and you tell me not to call you 'emo'?" Michiko yelled, ignoring the pain in her stomach and rolling aside, just as Kiba's punch landed, "Fine!" she shrieked, rolling back and landing a kick on Kiba's side, so that he rolled a short distance from the impact, "How about 'coward'?" she asked, jumping up and getting into the fighter's crouch again, waiting for Kiba's next attack.

Kiba picked himself up deliberately, and turned to Michiko, both fists clenched.

"Coward?" he asked in a low voice that did not bode well. The Inuzuka got into a matching fighter's crouch and ran towards Michiko, yelling again, "_I'm_ the coward, when _you're_ the one who freezes during a battle?"

"Yeah! A coward!" Michiko screamed back, making Kiba run faster, "You're afraid of what'll happen now that you know that she's one of your 'enemy'!" she taunted, using chakra to jump up in the air, just high enough to dodge Kiba.

Kiba, however, after fighting with Michiko before, had expected this tactic. Digging his fingers and feet into the dirt so that he could stop, soil flew as he jumped and spun, using chakra, to end up over where Michiko was in the air.

"You don't know anything!" Kiba bellowed, punching at Michiko's face.

Michiko somehow managed to catch his fist in her hands, and both landed on the ground. Michiko was stuck on the bottom, struggling to keep Kiba's fist from hitting her face, and Kiba was kneeling over her, struggling to get the punch to land.

"Coward," Michiko spat.

"You don't know anything," Kiba growled into her face.

"I know that you're afraid to talk to her."

"Show's how much _you_ know."

"Admit it! You _are_ afraid to talk to her!"

"A Chatora killed my father!"

"Is Pooriin that Chatora?"

"You don't understand!"

"I would if you'd just tell me, emo nii-chan!"

Kiba put an extra burst of energy into bringing down his arm, and Michiko just barely managed to turn her head to the side, dodging the punch as it connected to the ground.

"You...just...don't...get...it!" Kiba panted, now tired, emphasizing each word with another punch, all of which Michiko somehow managed to twist away from.

"I don't get what?" Michiko snapped, using her final burst of reserve energy to shove Kiba off onto the ground beside.

"Her family hates her enough, dammit!" Kiba wheezed, trying to get up, and realizing that the energy from his anger had worn off, "How're they going to react when they find out she likes an Inuzuka?"

"So you're making it better, how?" Michiko asked, unable to move where she lay, the pain in her stomach too much, "Yes, her family hates her, and that's hard. But imagine how it is if she thinks that her boyfriend hates her, too. I'm not even sure if you two are still dating."

"We are," Kiba said flatly, "And I don't hate her."

"Then tell her that!" Michiko exclaimed, half sitting up, then flopping down again, "...So you'll help Deniizu go scouting tomorrow?"

"...Yeah," Kiba answered tiredly, "Yeah, I'll go."

"Good," Michiko smiled faintly, then turned her head towards her friend and weakly moved her arm and pinched Kiba's cheek, "Aw, you made the right choice! I'm so proud of you!"

"Shut up," Kiba mumbled, wearily knocking her hand away, "You called me 'nii-chan'. I get to hold that over you, now."

"Whatever," Michiko grinned, and both slowly sat up, "Hey, you ok?" Michiko raised an eyebrow, punching Kiba's shoulder feebly.

"Yeah," Kiba winced, "But don't do that again; you hit that shoulder pretty good earlier."

"Then don't punch me in the stomach again," Michiko grimaced, petting Athos, who was slowly sneaking back with his brothers and Akamaru, "Honestly, _ow._ And make things up to Pooriin."

"I will, I will. Give me a break," Kiba rolled his eyes.

"BUT BIKTO, I NEED YOU!" a boy's voice rang out in the night.

Kiba, Michiko and the dogs all turned to see Bikto running by, and Korii running after him with his arms outstretched.

"COME BACK, BIKTO! COME BACK TO ME!" Korii yelled, still chasing the cat-user.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Bikto yelled, sounding panicky as he ran.

Kiba sweatdropped, Michiko put a hand over her mouth, Akamaru hid in Kiba's coat, and Athos and Aramis hid behind Michiko's legs. D'Artagnan and Porthos whined and covered their eyes with their paws. Kiba stared at the two running boys, slack-jawed, then turned to Michiko with a questioning look, still pointing at the disappearing forms of Korii and Bikto.

"I...uh..." Michiko shuddered and shook her head, "I choose to not ask questions."

"Ok..." Kiba nodded unsurely, "...I guess our shift is over. Um...I think I'll go straight to bed."

"Sure," Michiko grinned, gingerly getting up from the ground, "I'll get our replacements."

Aw...a warm, fuzzy moment. Let's all smile to ourselves.

Deniizu practiced balancing a kunai by its point on the tips of her fingers while she and Goudon walked along the camp's perimeter. Both were silent; Deniizu didn't know Goudon that well, and Goudon was in no mood to be amiable.

_Michiko and Korii want me to talk to this guy,_ Deniizu thought, annoyed, _Why me? Michiko and Korii are better at understanding emotions than me. ...Oh yeah, Michiko said I had my bloodline limit. How can I talk to this guy, already knowing what he's going to say next? He's going to think I'm creepy and he'll block his thoughts from me._

Deniizu had recently found yet another secret to her bloodline limit: her mind reading could be blocked, to a certain extent. Korii did it unintentionally, and Michiko was starting to figure out how to keep Deniizu from reading her thoughts; Shino had pushed her out of his mind at one point. Deniizu had noted that it was easier to stay in a person's mind, and was harder to get in once they've blocked you. Not that she had been completely blocked; if Deniizu tried, she could still get into everyone's head. But she had to try; stray thoughts wouldn't come to her anymore. And if she _did_ break into someone's mind, the person often suffered a headache, the severity of which depended on how hard the person was blocking.

_He's not blocking me now,_ Deniizu thought, balancing the kunai on her pinky, _Maybe because he doesn't know about my limit._

_How do I get her back?_ Goudon was thinking, _What are they doing to her? Is she safe? ...Of course not! They're bandits! Are they hurting her? Maybe they're torturing her..._

_Great,_ Deniizu thought, _He's a drama king, _and_ he's overprotective over his sister. ...maybe if I can steer his thoughts in another direction...Well, it's about time I trained my limit, anyway._

_If they're hurting her, I'll kill them! But maybe it's ok...maybe Pooriin will get enough courage to fight on her own. What am I thinking? Pooriin, fighting? She needs my help!_

_No, don't think that way,_ Deniizu thought, tweaking Goudon's mind again.

_But...ever since she met that guy in Konoha, Pooriin's been happier, _Goudon thought, _Braver, even. Heh. She wouldn't even tell me who it was. But he must still be in Konoha; she's been down ever since we left. I mean, she attacked Bikto with soup; she hasn't been herself lately._

_Hehe, I remember that,_ Deniizu thought to herself, _Now, to get Goudon to work with our group. ...huh?_

_And Pooriin's been looking at Kiba...differently, _Goudon thought, without Deniizu's prompting, _Not angrily like Bikto, and not in the chummy way that Michiko looks at him. ...it's more. Maybe the guy Pooriin's been talking about isn't in the village, but...Inuzuka Kiba. ...It makes sense; the way Kiba's been ignoring her would definitely make Pooriin sad...But I don't know for sure. ...I guess it's better not to jump to conclusions. ...But I think she _does_ like him. Do I mind? ...Not really; he's a decent guy when Bikto isn't talking, he knows how to fight, he's strong enough to protect Pooriin...And unlike Bikto, I don't care about the stupid feud. And neither do our parents. ...but how will the clan react when they find out that Pooriin likes an Inuzuka boy? ...no. I'm not going to think about it. There's plenty of time for Pooriin to find someone else, or for the feud to end. And at least Pooriin doesn't like an Inuzuka _girl_. That would be awkward._

Deniizu almost nicked herself when hearing that last thought.

_He's an ok guy, _Deniizu thought, surprised, _Goudon doesn't need me to think for him; he'll cooperate just fine. And I read Bikto's thoughts already; Bikto may not act it, but he really is concerned about his sister. He would've gone to rescue his sister on his own if he had to. ...These Chatora are a strange family._

Aw...even _more_ good brother-sister relations!

When Deniizu and Goudon were finishing their shift at guard duty, Hinata woke up slowly; the first thing she noticed, before her eyes were even focused, was that she had a crick in her neck.

_Where am I?_ Hinata thought, vaguely sensing that she was lying on something cold, _What happened? ...Someone grabbed me, and...oh yes. I fainted, again. I wish I could change..._

Hinata blinked her eyes into focus and saw that she was facing a bluish-white wall. After squirming backwards a little, she realized that she was looking at the side of a cave made of ice. She was lying on a sheet of ice, and she wasn't alone.

"Ah, so the princess awakens from her beauty sleep," a boy's voice said.

Hinata twisted her head around, and saw a boy in black standing over her.

"Who...who a-are y-you?" Hinata stammered.

"Now, now, there's no need to worry," the boy smiled, waving his hand airily, "My name's Sumoggu, and I'm just a simple ryounin, travelling the country, searching for-"

"Does he _have_ to go on and on like this?" another boy's voice asked, bored.

Hinata tried to turn her head further, but after realizing that she still couldn't see the speaker, she rolled over. The ice cave (or perhaps ice dome? Even the floor was solid ice) didn't have any furniture, but there were growths of ice that served as seats and tables to her captors. Behind Sumoggu were six more people; there were the two brown-haired girls from the days before, a girl in white martial arts clothing, a girl in a green tunic, a boy in a long brown coat, and a boy with a backpack of jars, who was also the one who had just spoken up.

"Hey, I got you into this clan, so be a little grateful," Sumoggu glared.

"Whatever, Sumoggu," the short brown-haired girl yawned.

_I'm losing face in front of my clan,_ Sumoggu thought angrily.

Hinata was still a little confused over what was going on; when Sumoggu turned back to her, she was staring blankly at him.

"What are you looking at?" Sumoggu yelled, his temporary good mood now gone.

The 'clan' had had a good, relax aura around them; now Hinata felt that a storm was going to begin.

_He's bipolar? _Hinata thought, looking at a now irate Sumoggu.

Sumoggu stepped over to the side, away from Hinata, and Hinata saw that Pooriin was sitting against the cave wall, bound and gagged. Hinata winced with Pooriin as Sumoggu kicked the Chatora while he passed her by.

_Kamisama,_ Hinata thought, starting to tremble, _Who are these people?_

...Ok, now there were some _bad_ relations.

Hinata and Pooriin had been left alone after that first incident; once Sumoggu had left the girls, all of the captors had gone straight to their own personal jobs around the ice cave. An hour or so later, the girl in the green tunic had left the shelter, only to come back a few moments later with a peregrine falcon on her arm. After that, the cave had been silent with the group getting ready for bed, and both hostages had been given the chance to rest. However, neither had been able to get any sleep; both were too apprehensive about their situation. Pooriin managed to wriggle so that she was beside Hinata, and somehow they managed to slip Pooriin's gag out of her mouth so that she could speak again.

"Thanks," Pooriin said, working her jaw around when the gag hung loose around her neck, "I'm _so_ glad the cloth for that thing was clean."

Hinata grimaced, then sat against the wall beside Pooriin tiredly.

"Now what?" Hinata whispered, and Pooriin shrugged sadly, "Did you learn anything while I was out?"

"Well..." Pooriin thought for a moment, "The two girls that look alike seem to be cousins; Emi has short hair, and Ezu has long hair. That guy with the brown coat is named Ruko; he and Ezu were the ones that carried us here, and I think they like each other," Pooriin added mischieviously, "I totally understand, though; both of them are actually really nice."

"How do you know?" Hinata asked curiously.

"Because when we got back here, as soon as Ruko put me down, he kept glancing at Ezu, and Ezu kept glancing at him, and it's _so cute..._" Pooriin's voice faded, and after a moment, she shook her head, "No. They're our kidnappers. I can't think like this."

"Ano, did you notice anything else?" Hinata asked, wishing she were of more help while she continued to try and wriggle out of her bindings.

"Um...Let's see...Sumoggu's definitely the leader. And the name of the guy with the jar backpack is Kishimu," Pooriin added, nodding towards the red-headed boy, "From what I heard, Sumoggu is the only reason Kishimu is in this group. Um...they called it their 'clan', I think."

"By clan, ano, do you mean that they all just banded together to make a group? Not that they're all related?" Hinata asked, and Pooriin nodded.

"I think Emi and Ezu are the only ones in the same family here," Pooriin said, "Monoka, the girl in the white outfit with green hair, was called a 'stray' by Sumoggu and Kishimu a couple times."

"Maybe they found her once and let her join," Hinata suggested.

"Yeah, I was thinking that. Also, the girl with short, dark brown hair in the green tunic is named Tsume; she's the one that trained and uses that falcon."

"'Tsume'?" Hinata frowned slightly, "As in 'claw'? ...That's Kiba's mom's name too."

Pooriin agreed, nodding slowly, then stared into space and lapsed into silence. Hinata looked at her friend sadly, understanding a little of what Pooriin was going through.

"Kiba still likes you," Hinata assured, still working on the ropes at her wrists, "Trust me."

"Would you trust me if I said that Naruto liked you?" Pooriin asked dryly, raising an eyebrow.

Hinata looked down and spots of colour appeared on her cheeks.

_But that's different. Kiba really does like you,_ Hinata thought, silenced.

"Thought so," Pooriin nodded, going back to staring into space.

Hinata winced as she felt her ropes biting into her wrists, and tried to activate her Byakugan without making a handseal. However, she hadn't yet mastered that talent, and her efforts proved fruitless.

_If only I could remember all those escape techniques from ropes,_ Hinata thought, angry with herself, _Or if I could see...As soon as I get out of here, I'm reading up on escape techniques. ..._If_ I get out of here._

_I wish Michelle were here,_ Pooriin thought, not even making an effort with her ropes, _She's always ready to help me, whether I want her to or not...Denise would probably be talking me through how to escape; she probably would've already have gotten through the ropes somehow. Or aniki! He's insanely strong; he might even have been able to break the ropes! ...But who I really want is Kiba..._

_

* * *

_

Itachi: (still glaring)

A/N: Why didn't I just write him in? Then I wouldn't have to mention him in these notes so often...(sigh) Oh well. ...I need some Pocky. Too bad people don't hand out Pocky on Hallowe'en...Anyway, review, please!


	15. Mission Day 6: Morning

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, and...ugh, I'm hungry. Just assume I don't own anything in here that is not an original character.

Itachi: This is a foolishly long chapter, so you idiotic readers out there have no reason to complain about the fact that Esperwen can only update once or twice a week. Also, only about five people have voted for their favourite original characters (my Deniizu is tied at two votes to that inane Michiko), so tell us who your favourite character is in your review, or there will be much death.

A/N: Ok, in the next story, Itachi will be more prominent.

Itachi: ...you're writing _more_? (death glare)

A/N: Not if you kill me with those looks, I won't!

* * *

_Zero stress! Zero stress! I am a calm, collected individual. Serenity is my nature, and azure blue is my favourite colour. I will be relaxed. I will have poise and emotional balance. No one and nothing can faze-_

"Ohayo, Michiko," Bikto greeted loudly, hanging upside-down from a neighbouring tree.

In the main camp, Shino, Deniizu, Kiba and Goudon all winced when they heard a piercing shriek. Korii simply glanced into the forest where Michiko and Bikto were, before turning back to his breakfast.

"Bikto must have interrupted Michiko's meditation," Kiba guessed.

"No shit..." Deniizu's eyes were wide as she agreed.

"Ow," Goudon nodded, rubbing his ears.

Shino was sitting, facing where he had seen Michiko disappear off to that morning. She had looked stressed; Shino had decided that the wisest thing to do was leave her alone. Now, he could hear dogs barking, cats yowling, and a boy screaming. Looking up, the whole group saw three of Michiko's dogs chasing Bikto and his two cats back to the main camp. Athos had been snapping at the cats' hind feet; as soon as they'd cleared past the forest, he stopped and continued to bark angrily from the trees. Aramis was taking care of the two cats on his own now, while Porthos hung onto Bikto's left ankle; D'Artagnan was nowhere to be seen.

And _stay_ out, you filthy b- Athos barked.

Athos! Watch what you say! Akamaru barked, rising from his place beside Kiba.

Athos immediately fell silent, and after looking over what his brothers were doing, he seemed to nod to himself before running back into the forest. Shino got up and dusted himself off while Bikto collapsed beside Deniizu and Kiba.

"Get it off! Get it off!" Bikto yelled, waving his leg at the two genins.

"You're a mid-level ninja; you can do it yourself," Goudon sniffed, taking another bite of food while Deniizu nodded.

"I'm your client!" Bikto pointed out, shoving his ankle at Deniizu's face.

_His whole 'client act' is getting old,_ Korii thought to himself, chewing deliberately to show that he was doing more important things than helping Bikto.

Kiba finally pried Porthos off of Bikto's ankle, though more to get him to shut up than to help him.

"You don't deserve this," Kiba growled, glaring at the older boy.

"Just like you don't deserve life," Bikto sneered back.

"Guys, just chill," Goudon ordered, holding a kunai between both boys' faces, "We have to be a team, right now."

"Yeah, yeah," Bikto muttered, moving over to his sleeping mat to pack up.

_Bastard,_ Kiba thought angrily, then looked around the camp for support and realized that Shino had left.

_Don't mess things up,_ Deniizu said into Shino's head, while he was still within sight.

_Don't think I haven't noticed the way you look at your new teammate,_ Shino advised back.

_He's a smart one,_ Deniizu thought to herself, withdrawing from Shino's thoughts, _I'll have to keep an eye on him._

_We're off at a great start this morning,_ Korii thought sarcastically, _...If Akamaru keeps eyeing my toast like that, he can shove it up his ass. ...can dogs even do that? Now _there_ is something worth thinking about._

Intrigue! Drama! Deniizu and Korii? Angst! Itachi is glaring at me again! Help!

Shino soon found Michiko sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. D'Artagnan was sniffing Michiko's face; she seemed to be doing the same to the dog, as if they were communicating. Athos, who had just run back, was lying beside Michiko, and had his head on her lap, and Michiko petted him silently. None of them had noticed Shino; he had a tendency to sneak up on people, intentionally or not. The bug-user coughed politely to get their attention, and the girl flinched before quickly composing herself and sitting up straight; Shino had startled her.

"Hey," Michiko greeted, waving to Shino as he looked down at her, "Has something happened to Kurenai-san?"

Shino shook his head.

"Um...then are we going yet?"

Shino shook his head again before saying:

"We get another half an hour before breaking camp. Then we're splitting up; Kiba and Deniizu will go tracking, while the rest of us go back to the road and travel ahead."

"Ok," Michiko nodded, then asked after a moment, "How're your eyes?"

"What do you mean?" Shino asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Are they completely healed? I dealt with what I could sense, but were there any other injuries that I missed?" Michiko explained.

"What makes you think I _have_ eyes?" Shino asked, avoiding the question.

"A little bird told me. Apparently they're hazel-coloured," Michiko said airily, thinking, _That, and I could sense your eyeballs were there with my healing jutsu._

"...Who told you that?" Shino asked roughly, thinking, _It was either Hinata or Kiba; only six people have ever seen my eyes, and those two are the only ones who might have given that answer._

"No, really! A bird!" Michiko protested.

The girl pointed up at the tree behind her, and when Shino turned to look, he saw a small brown bird perched on a branch high above both of them.

"At that angle, that bird can see over your sunglasses," Michiko explained, glancing at the bird before grinning triumphantly at Shino.

"...One of these days, I'm getting a hood," Shino said firmly, still staring at the bird.

"That being said, are your eyes alright?" Michiko asked again, looking at Shino quizzically.

"Yes, my eyes are fine," Shino answered grumpily.

"Good."

Shino looked down at Michiko again, and saw that she was still grinning at him. He shook his head, annoyed, and Michiko couldn't help but laugh at how she was bugging him.

"Is there anything that you needed, anyway?" Michiko asked trying to stifle her giggles.

Shino shook his head, turned, and began to walk away from Michiko. The kunoichi sighed and shrugged to herself, wondering why Shino couldn't take any jokes. As she got up, she felt something land on her arm and start crawling towards her wrist; instinctively, she made as if to swat at the insect, but at the last moment, she remembered who she was around and moved her hand so that it didn't land on the bug, but over her scar hole. Examining the insect closely, she saw that it was one of Shino's kikaichu.

"Um...Shino?" Michiko asked, turning to Shino and raising her arm to indicate the beetle on it.

Shino stopped walking, then turned and marched back to stand in front of Michiko.

"Yes?" Shino asked, remembering to keep emotion out of his voice, like usual.

"There's a kikaichu on my arm," Michiko said, pointing to it.

Shino nodded. Silence.

"Is it _your_ kikaichu?"

Shino nodded. Silence.

"Why is it here?"

Just silence. No nodding.

"Are you planning on killing me?"

Shino shook his head. Silence.

"Is it just an errant beetle that isn't listening to your orders?"

Shino shook his head. Silence.

Michiko stared at Shino for a second, then kicked his shin, now annoyed.

"Darnit, Shino, why did you sic a kikaichu on me?" Michiko exclaimed.

D'Artagnan and Athos barked, showing that they wanted to know too, and Shino sighed silently.

"I want to be able to know where everyone is during this mission," Shino explained, "This is a female kikaichu. I can use her scent as a sort of tracking device with all the other male kikaichu I have. If I can place a bug on everyone, I can find them anywhere, in almost any circumstance."

Shino reached over and gently held both of her wrists.

"The safest place for the kikaichu to be is in your scar," Shino said, "Trust me. It won't hurt you; she's only going to be acting as a homing device."

Michiko hesitated, then let Shino pull her hands apart. Both watched as the kikaichu crawled into Michiko's scar hole, then pulled away from each other awkwardly when the beetle was out of sight.

"Um..."

Michiko fiddled with a lock of hair, and Shino examined his feet for a moment before looking up at Michiko again. He seemed about to speak, when D'Artagnan suddenly ran off, barking, and Athos stood up on his hind legs, apparently looking ahead for something. Both genins looked and saw Korii heading towards them.

"It's time to go, guys," said Korii, and Michiko and Shino nodded and followed their leader back to camp.

Fluff! Happiness! Birdies! More glares from Itachi! I swear, can't he just leave me alone...?

Deniizu, Kiba and Akamaru made a great tracking team.

Kiba and Akamaru kept to the ground, while Deniizu jumped from tree branch to tree branch. Deniizu knew traps better than any of the genins (except Tenten), so she covered Kiba, making sure that there were no hazards or obstacles in his and Akamaru's way. Kiba and Akamaru knew tracking better than any of the genins, so they did all the main work on the ground, not worrying about getting hurt since Deniizu was watching over them.

Kiba and Akamaru were having a bit of a tough time following the enemy's trail. The girl who had been dropping water balloons had stopped using that form of transportation just a few yards away from the road, so looking for slightly damper parts of the ground was not an option. It seemed that as soon as the enemy had gotten out of sight of the road, they had all taken special precautions to cover their trail. Sooner, even; Kiba could only find five trails; the other two bandits hadn't left a mark.

_Kuso...We're only about 30 feet away from the road,_ Kiba thought, glancing backwards, _These people were good._

Deniizu watched as Kiba pounded the ground with a fist, and Akamaru started digging a shallow hole in the ground. Both were getting agitated, she knew. With a small shrug, Deniizu began scanning the area again, then blinked when she saw a bit of icy blue peeking through the trees.

"I see something, Kiba," Deniizu said, jumping to a closer branch.

_A settlement?_ she thought, continuing to approach the almost-white object, _Some kind of building?_ _...shit..._

"Kiba, get up here," Deniizu ordered, still staring at what she had found, and Kiba obliged.

"What is it?" Kiba asked, as he and Akamaru landed beside Deniizu on the branch.

Deniizu pointed, and Kiba placed Akamaru on his head before turning. At first he didn't understand what he was staring at; the structure was extremely out of place, and didn't make sense at that time of year. But when it finally registered, Kiba's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in anger. Akamaru growled while Kiba clenched two fists.

"They're _too _good," Kiba said through clenched teeth. Deniizu nodded.

"Yeah," she agreed, "Good enough to make a solid igloo shelter up in the branches of a tree in early July."

More exclamation points! Yay! Wait, an igloo? Not yay. Very not yay.

Early that morning, on the sixth day of their mission, Hinata woke up uttering something between a yelp and a gasp. All she could feel on one side was pain; looking up to see who had kicked her, she saw Kishimu leering down at her.

"Time to wake up, princess," the red-haired boy sneered, adjusting his jar backpack while he spoke, "All the beauty sleep in the world couldn't improve _you_."

"And no mirror could ever reflect _you _without shattering," Pooriin's voice rang out in Hinata's defence.

Hinata saw Kishimu's eyes narrow, and Hinata flinched as if expecting him to hit her. Instead, Kishimu whirled around to where Pooriin lay nearby, and slapped Pooriin soundly across the face.

"Shut up, ahou," Kishimu growled in menacing tones, "We don't really need you as a hostage, you know. You're perfectly dispensable."

Pooriin looked as if about to talk back, but Kishimu raised his hand again and she cringed, the fight in her gone. However, he didn't bring his hand down; he merely grinned unpleasantly before walking away. Relieved, Pooriin tried squirming towards Hinata, only to fall flat onto her face; the ropes that tied her hands together had gotten snagged on the floor. Both the hostages heard snickering, and turning their heads, they saw Sumoggu sitting on the ice table, and Kishimu standing with his back turned to the girls, supporting his foot against one of the ice chairs. Both the older teens were watching the girls, sniggering to themselves as they watched their feeble attempts at freeing Pooriin.

"Oh, for pity's sake," a girl's voice breathed, sounding frustrated. But she spoke quietly; neither the hostages nor the two leaders heard her.

Ezu, who had spoken, had been sitting in the sleeping area with Emi, Ruko and Monoka. Now, all three of them got up as one. After a short, whispered conversation, Monoka stepped outside of the igloo through a hidden door, and the other three quietly went over to where the two captives were. Ezu started untying Pooriin, while Emi helped Hinata out of her ropes.

"Hey, what do you two think you're doing?" Sumoggu yelled, jumping up from his place.

"They're just untying them," Ruko answered in a low voice, glaring at the clan leader.

"You can't do that," Kishimu exclaimed, "They'll get away!"

Both teens stalked to where the group was; Pooriin could feel dangerous chi emanating off of them as they approached. So did the clan cousins and Ruko, but they made no sign to show it. Hinata barely suppressed a small sigh of relief when she felt the tight ropes around her wrists come away.

"Don't, like, say anything," Emi whispered to Hinata before she did anything else, "Leave the talking to, like, Ezu-chan and Ruko. They'll help you girls out."

"What do you mean, 'get away'?" Ruko asked menacingly, speaking to Kishimu, his chi matching the other boys' aura, "The door is hidden, and they don't know how to use it anyway."

"Like we can completely trust Ezu with the prisoners," Sumoggu tsked, looking sceptical.

"She's too kind to them," Kishimu agreed, "Next thing you know, she'll pull some idiotic stunt like freeing them."

Pooriin, who was still being untied by a silent Ezu, suddenly heard a scuttling noise coming from both Ruko and the sleeping area. Looking towards the sound's origin, Pooriin saw small, grey and brown things coming from Ruko's large backpack, and from the lining of his large coat.

_Is he a bug-user too?_ both hostages thought, quailing slightly away from the crawling mass.

_Wait..._ Hinata looked closer at one of the creatures as it crawled by her, _It's not an insect...it's a crab! There are a lot of tiny crabs!_

_Hermit crabs? _Pooriin thought incredulously, _Wouldn't that be really heavy to carry around everywhere?_

"Um, Ruko? I think you're overdoing stuff just a _tiny_ bit," Emi said in a small voice, emphasizing the word 'tiny' by showing the tips of her thumb and forefinger close together, but not quite touching.

_...he reminds me of Shino, overdoing it like that,_ Pooriin thought, remembering a time when she had been walking with him and Kiba while the other two portal-users were studying with Sakura and Ino.

_

* * *

_

_"'...Hang on tight, we're going really fast!'" Pooriin laughed, saying the punch line of one of her favourite jokes._

_Kiba laughed right along with her, completely appreciating the corny story. Shino, on the other hand, remain stoic._

"_...oh, come on, Shino! It's funny!" Kiba exclaimed, punching his friendly playfully in the arm while Pooriin continued laughing._

"_Not really," Shino shrugged, still serious._

"_Arf, arf!" Akamaru yipped, jumping in front of Shino so that he was waist-high, before landing on the ground and running in circles around the small group again._

"_Akamaru thinks it's a good joke," Pooriin pointed out, before falling into giggles again._

"_Akamaru thinks sticks are hilarious. Much like Kiba," Shino added as an afterthought._

"_Hey..." Kiba protested, but even Akamaru was laughing at him now, "It's not my fault you have no sense of humour, bug-freak," he grumbled, more to himself than to Shino._

_Feeling a change in the air, Pooriin immediately sobered up, and Akamaru froze where he was. Kiba realized his mistake when he saw the dark look on Shino's face._

"_...I'll say this one more time," Shino rumbled, beetles suddenly appearing from out of his sleeves and collar, "The joke was _not that funny_. All right?"_

"_Y-yeah! Not funny. Got it!" Kiba squeaked._

"_Good," Shino nodded, the bugs quickly retreating back into his body, and he continued walking down the street. Pooriin, Akamaru and Kiba merely watched after him, stunned._

"_...Don't call him a 'bug-freak' again," Pooriin advised to Kiba in a quiet voice._

"_Don't say that joke again," Kiba whispered back, and Akamaru nodded sagely.

* * *

_

"They won't get away. All right?" Ruko asked, raising an eyebrow seriously.

"Um...yeah..." Sumoggu nodded slowly, while he and Kishimu eyed the many hermit crabs surrounding them warily.

"Good," Ruko nodded, making a hand seal so that the crabs retreated back into their places.

_A lot like Shino,_ both Hinata and Pooriin thought.

"'Morning, everyone!" Tsume greeted cheerily, just entering the igloo with Monoka. The falcon-user looked around, taking in everything in the scene from the hostages' stunned looks, to the last crab entering Ruko's backpack, to the remnants of what was angry chi in the air, and realized that she was interrupting something.

"Eto..." Tsume's voice trailed off, and the falcon on her wrist hid its head under a wing, pretending to be asleep.

"I, um, I got some food!" Monoka said cheerily in a cute voice, holding up two bowls proudly, and in doing so, ended the tense atmosphere.

"I guess it's my turn at guard duty," Ruko nodded, already walking to retrieve his backpack.

Tsume nodded, still unsure of how to act, all too well knowing the clan leaders' unstable moods. Tsume took the ropes that had held Pooriin and Hinata's wrists from Emi and leaned against the ice wall nearby, within hearing range, as if standing on guard for them. While the falcon-user stood, keeping an eye on Sumoggu and Kishimu, who were sitting down again, Monoka passed a bowl to each of the captives before sitting down in between her two clan-mates. Then there was silence, with the captors watching the captives curiously, and vice-versa.

Pooriin and Hinata looked first at the girls surrounding them, then down at the bowls they were given, warily.

"It's good rice soup, trust me!" Monoka encouraged cheerfully, then clutched at the back of her head and exclaimed, "Itai!" after a moment.

Turning around, all six girls saw that Kishimu had just thrown a blunt, practice kunai at the back of Monoka's head.

"Could you shut up?" Kishimu asked angrily, while Sumoggu laughed uncaringly in the background, "Kuso, you're so loud!"

Monoka opened her mouth to retort, but before she could speak, another practice kunai came into painful contact with her forehead. Pooriin clapped a hand over her mouth, and Hinata flinched, wide-eyed and holding an arm in front of her as a subconscious defence. Both were shocked at how the clan leader was treating his group, but the actual clan-mates seemed as if this were a normal occurence.

"Itai!" Monoka whimpered, covering her forehead with both hands and hunching over, as if expecting another kunai to come her way.

Fortunately, the two boys simply turned away and began talking to each other again. Emi and Ezu glared at Tsume, while Monoka kept nursing a growing lump on her forehead.

"Girl, you could've, like, done something!" Emi exclaimed, punching the icy floor irritably.

"You're the only one Kishimu even bothers to listen to," Ezu added, tugging on a lock of her long, brown hair in an irritated fashion.

_Hey, Michiko does that too,_ Pooriin thought, recalling that the more annoyed she was, the harder Michiko would pull on her hair.

"This _is_ a change from before," Tsume defended, "The kunai were blunt this time."

Hinata had been examining the soup she was holding, but now she dropped her spoon in shock; Pooriin couldn't help but make a shocked sound in her throat.

"Yeah, it's true," Tsume nodded, stroking her falcon's neck feathers absently, "Kishimu used to throw sharp kunai at Mono-chan, here."

"And proud of it!" Kishimu called, waving to the girls from the other side of the room.

Emi grabbed one of the falled kunai and made as if to whip it at the red-haired boy, but Tsume was suddenly at her side, holding the wrist that Emi was using to throw.

"You _know_ I can't let you do that," Tsume sighed, with the air of one who had argued the same point many times before.

"No matter how much you wish you _could_," Ezu grumbled, tugging at her hair again.

"Ok, like, seriously? You really take that, like, 'oath thing' too seriously," Emi complained, pouting.

"Ok, um...this is the part where I do something you'll truly understand. _Whatever_," Tsume rolled her eyes, making a 'W' with her index fingers and thumbs, and holding it out towards Emi; even the falcon held its wings out, making a slight 'W' shape of its own.

"Cute," Emi cooed sarcastically, while Monoka and Ezu giggled in the background.

Pooriin and Hinata looked at each other, slightly confused. These people weren't all that bad, it seemed. The two leaders may be bullies, but the rest appeared to be...

"A lot like us..." Pooriin whispered unintentionally.

"Hm? Who?"

Ezu looked at the two hostages and saw the looks they were giving each other; she couldn't help but half-smile.

"Let me guess," Ezu said, catching Hinata and Pooriin's attention, "You're surprised we're like this. You thought kidnappers would be completely mean and nasty, right?"

Hinata turned bright red, and Pooriin nodded, both embarrassed that they'd been caught.

"Well, some people are kidnappers out of necessity," Ezu shrugged moodily, keeping her voice low so that Kishimu and Sumoggu couldn't make out her words, "Some kidnappers only do so because they have to."

"And we had to follow orders, so that's why you're here," Monoka chimed in, "Now eat your soup with no worries, or it'll get cold!"

_That's not much incentive,_ Hinata sweatdropped, examining her soup again; both she and Pooriin were a little surprised at the green-haired girl's constant positive attitude.

"Um...ok," Pooriin nodded unsurely, and slowly filled her spoon with the rice soup, thinking, _Lugao,_ referring to a Philippino rice soup that very closely resembled what was in front of her, _I really don't like lugao..._

Still, after both Pooriin and Hinata sampled the white concoction, both realized that it was actually quite tasty. Upon seeing their delighted expressions, Monoka grinned and held two peace signs out towards the girls.

"See? I make the _best_ rice soup!" the small 10-year-old laughed.

"I like this!" Pooriin exclaimed, motioning towards the soup excitedly, "No offence, but I didn't think I would!"

"Yeah. Monoka's our kawaii widdle cook," Emi chuckled, tickling the younger girl and teasing her in more baby talk, "Isn't dat right? Huh? Huh?"

"Nee-chan, stop!" Monoka gasped between giggles, "I'll get in trouble!"

Tsume and Pooriin joined in the laughter, but Hinata, while still eating, saw that Ezu only half-smiled. The long-haired 16-year-old had an eye on Sumoggu, who was looking at the other girls' good time with disapproval. When she saw Kishimu's hand stray towards his weapons pouch, Ezu grabbed Emi's elbow firmly, completely stopping the tickle fight. After receiving a stern look from Ezu, and after glancing at the clan leaders, Emi left Monoka alone, and both girls sat on the floor as primly as possible.

"We're _totally _not allowed to have fun in this clan," Emi said matter-of-factly.

"...Are you serious?" Pooriin asked, half-believing the short-haired girl.

"No, but she's pretty frigging close," Tsume growled, and her falcon clacked his beak in agreement.

"So...why are you in it?" Pooriin queried, before glancing fearfully at the two boys to make sure they weren't looking.

"Will you eat your soup if we tell you?" Monoka asked hopefully.

Ezu grinned and poked the girl in the ribs playfully before saying:

"What Mono-chan really means to ask, is 'will you listen carefully, then somehow get rid of Sumoggu and Kishimu so we can be free?'"

"That bad?" Pooriin asked, again surprised.

_What's _with_ this clan?_ Hinata thought, knowing exactly what it was like to be in a clan that you wanted absolutely no part in.

"It's a bit of a long story, but we've got time," Tsume shrugged, "Ezu, I guess it starts with you."

* * *

A/N: Gasp! Shock! Qu'est-ce que c'est? Nan da? Ano yan? Other shocked sounds!

Itachi: Shut up...(brandishes blunt kunai)

A/N: Eh...yeah. Well, that's the end of this chapter. Excuse me while I read some Death Note (I don't own Death Note. I don't even own this copy; it's the library's...). And review! Your favourite original character and maybe some feedback! And send me some Pocky!


	16. Mission Day 6: The Clan's Past

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, any ideas affiliated, blahblahblahblahblah...I just want to post!

A/N: My internet at home is still dead, and the school tried to foil me by bringing classes into the library. But they have all failed! There is no class today! I win! I post, now...

* * *

Ezu fiddled with her hair again, trying to figure out where to begin, then after a moment, she explained their situation. 

"Ok...it was maybe...three months ago? Is that right?"

"Mm-hm. Totally. Right after, like, Sumoggu's 18th birthday."

* * *

_Sumoggu had finally come of age. Finally he was eighteen. Finally he could leave home and not be followed._

_Finally he could start his clan._

_Sumoggu was an unofficial ninja. His village and family were both poor, so only a few chosen people could go to a main village for ninja training; the rest had to stay home and work. So while Sumoggu's cousin got to attend Konoha's Academy, Sumoggu was stuck doing farm chores. However, after much persuasion, the cousin had taught Sumoggu basic ninja techniques in secret. Now that he had come of age, Sumoggu could leave and become strong, without any stupid farm chores to slow him down._

_And he had the people to start the clan with._

_Suizuka Ezu and Emi, double cousins with prime ninja abilities. Their mothers had been twins, both with a recessive bloodline limit ability. Their fathers had been brothers, both with ninja training, but both had chosen the way of peace, for some reason. Their mothers may not have had a useable ability, but the girls certainly did. Their water-based bloodline limit gave the user a better affinity to using and creating water. Emi's father had a chakra affinity to fire, so Emi could use scalding water in her jutsus. Ezu's father had a chakra affinity to wind, so Ezu's jutsus were based primarily around ice. And both of them owed him a favour. A large favour.

* * *

_

"Why did you owe him a favour?" Pooriin asked, confused.

"For half a year, he had helped out at Emi and my family's farm," Ezu explained, "He wouldn't accept any pay for the whole time. We thought he was being nice, but he's far from it."

"Right after his birthday, he came straight to our house," Emi added.

* * *

_"You owe me," Sumoggu growled in a rough voice, "Either you follow me for six months, or I tear apart your little farm."_

_"You wouldn't dare," Ezu sneered, and Emi made an 'up yours' action with her arms._

_Sumoggu looked the girls up and down, then turned on his heel and walked away. The cousins thought that he would not come back.

* * *

_

"But he did, huh?" Pooriin guessed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Emi nodded angrily, "He killed our four goats and set the horses loose in one day."

"The _real_ problem, though, was that he poisoned the family dog," Ezu added in a choked voice, "He threatened to do the same to our parents, so we had to go with him."

"I hate that guy," Emi growled, "He wouldn't even let us say goodbye to our parents properly; we could only leave a note."

"So, just three days after Sumoggu's birthday, we set out to a nearby village to pick up his friend, Kishimu."

* * *

_The afternoon after leaving the sea-side village, Sumoggu could feel that someone was following his small band, but he continued down the road as if he didn't._

No matter,_ the tall boy thought, _Whoever it is, they're harmless enough.

Ruko, I'm so sorry, _Ezu thought miserably, _I didn't mean to leave like this.

I swear...Ezu-nee had better not be thinking about that Ruko guy, _Emi thought, watching her cousin drag her feet, _He totally creeps me out...

_Just then, all three teens heard a girl weeping, somewhere off the road. Ezu snapped out of her thoughts, and instinctively hurried off the dirt road, towards the noise's source._

_"Get back here!" Sumoggu snapped, but Ezu was already lost in the trees._

_"Um...wait up, nee-chan!" Emi called, following her cousin hurriedly._

_Sumoggu glared at their retreating backs, then hurried after the two 16-year-old girls before he lost them completely._

_Ezu soon found the one who was crying; she motioned for her companions to stay quiet when they caught up to her. At the foot of one tree, partly hidden behind a bush, a small girl with white clothes and green hair was huddled, trying to stifle sobs.

* * *

_

"THAT WAS ME!" Monoka exclaimed cheerily, then winced and yelped, "Itai!" yet again, when she was hit by another one of Kishimu's training kunai.

"Shut up!" Kishimu ordered, looking at the 10-year-old freezingly before turning back to Sumoggu.

"Can any of you say 'shounen-ai'?" Tsume whispered to the group, jerking her thumb towards the two leaders; Monoka smiled at the 17-year-old falconer gratefully.

"Yeah, anyway, that was the bee_yew_tiful day that we met Monoka-chan," Emi grinned, pinching the girl's cheek none-too-gently.

"Monoka had run away from home, and she needed a place or some people to stay with," Ezu said, continuing with her narrative, "At first, Sumoggu didn't want her to come with us."

* * *

_"No way in bloody hell," Sumoggu protested coldly._

_"She needs someone to take care of her!" Ezu exclaimed, "Look at her! She isn't even old enough to get a proper job!"_

_"Oh, boo friggiddy hoo," Sumoggu sneered, "I don't friggin' care!"_

_"Why'd you, like, run anyway?" Emi asked curiously._

_"Because..." Monoka's voice trailed off and she looked away._

_"...It's all cool; you can tell us," Emi encouraged, "We're, like, you know...the good guys!"_

_Ezu examined the girl for a moment before asking:_

_"A bloodline limit? Is that it?"_

_Monoka looked up, stunned, and nodded vigorously._

_"How...how did you...?" she stuttered, surprised._

_"Our moms told us about that before, how some villages are afraid of bloodline limits," Ezu explained._

_"We've got some pretty cool bloodthingies, too," Emi added proudly, "I can create boiling water, and Ezu can make ice. What's yours do?"_

_"Ano...this," Monoka held a hand out and demonstrated._

_Even Sumoggu was interested now; the green-haired girl held a single grain of uncooked rice in the palm of her hand. As they all watched, the rice multiplied, and somehow cooked itself, so that it became an entire rice ball, perfectly fitting in Monoka's hand._

_"...Cool," Emi nodded after a second._

_"My village didn't think so," Monoka mumbled, "When I get angry, I accidently make dangerous onigiri."_

_"_Dangerous_?" Sumoggu snorted, "What, like poisonous?"_

_"No...The riceball explodes and irritates the person's skin, or it's hard and I throw it at a person like a stone, or the rice becomes a paste," Monoka explained, her lip quivering, "I didn't mean to..."_

_"We know," Ezu assured, smoothing the girl's hair, "We know it was a mistake."_

_"...Take her with us," Sumoggu said after a thoughtful moment._

_"Huh?" Emi asked, in a most intelligent manner._

_"She can come with us," Sumoggu said, already walking back towards the road, "Now hurry up!"_

_I could use some onigiri right now..._

_The next day, at around noon, the group reached Kishimu's village. Sumoggu had already contacted the genjutsu-user, apparently. Kishimu was waiting at the village gates, completely ready to leave, with a teenaged girl standing beside him, a falcon perched on her shoulder._

_"Nice to see you again, Sumoggu," Kishimu greeted, a slight smirk on his face._

_"Kishimu, my old friend," Sumoggu nodded, "Who is this?"_

_"Senpuu Tsume," the girl answered for herself, barely nodding, "And my companion, Kageno."_

_"I mentioned the idea of our clan to her, and she eagerly offered to join," Kishimu said airily, "I know she can fight well, so of course I let her come."

* * *

_

"And Tsume can! She really can!" Monoka jumped in eagerly, before remembering herself and glancing at the two leaders, hoping they wouldn't throw anything at her. Which, thankfully, they didn't.

"Tsume and Kageno are _totally_ our best taijutsu users," Emi grinned.

"But Ezu's the best ninjutsu user, Ruko's the best tactician, Monoka's our kawaii cook, and Emi's the best...um...she's good at haggling," Tsume finished lamely, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Oh, thanks," Emi glared playfully, punching her friend's leg.

Hinata smiled shyly, and Pooriin laughed right out.

"But if you're all so good, why not leave this clan?" Pooriin asked after a moment.

"Matters of honour," Ezu shrugged, "If we leave, Sumoggu would come find us, and either kill our family, make us rejoin for a longer time, or both."

"They haven't, you know, like, killed anybody," Emi added, "Yet. So long as we're around them, we can, like, stop them, right?"

"Mine is a matter of honour too," Tsume sighed, frustrated, "Kishimu rescued my baby brother from drowning in a river, once. Since my brother's still little, I'm taking his place in paying Kishimu back. ...before I swore my oath, Kishimu had been kind. I was foolish; it had all been an act."

"But what about Ruko?" Hinata asked softly.

"Love story!" Monoka whispered secretively, giggling.

"Oh, please," Ezu rolled her eyes.

"Fine. _I'll_ tell them, nee-chan," Emi grinned.

* * *

_"Another freak," Sumoggu sighed, "At least we have a good start for a proper clan."_

_"True. We have...seven people now," Kishimu observed, looking the group over._

_"...seven?" Sumoggu exclaimed, completely thrown off._

_Sumoggu looked over his shoulder and examined the crowd he had brought. There were the three girls he had brought, and..._

_"Ruko-kun," Ezu breathed, almost silently, and Emi blinked._

_"STALKER!" Emi yelled, pointing accusingly at the boy in the brown coat._

_"What're you doing here?" Sumoggu and Ezu chorused, though Sumoggu's tone was angrier. Much angrier._

_"He didn't come with you?" Kishimu asked, surprised._

_"Some leader," Tsume smirked, and the falcon clacked its beak as if laughing._

_"Let me join," Ruko said calmly, "I can fight, and seven is a lucky number."_

_Sumoggu struggled with speaking for a while; he was so angry, his tongue was tied and his face was turning purple._

_"Don't like him, huh?" Tsume grinned, earning a kick in the shin from Kishimu._

_"Still, he makes a good point," Kishimu pointed out, "Seven _is_ lucky, and one more able-bodied fighter would be useful."_

_"FINE! FINE! I DON'T CARE, LET'S JUST LEAVE!" Sumoggu yelled, already stomping away._

_"Well-tempered boy, isn't he?" Tsume said ironically, winking broadly at the rest of the new-found clan. Immediately, Kishimu realised just what a handful this group would be.

* * *

_

Monoka collected the bowls that both hostages had now emptied, and set them aside to clean later.

"Sounded like a fun way to get your group together," Pooriin said thoughtfully.

"Depends," Ezu shrugged.

"It'd be better without the two turds we call leaders," Tsume added.

Pooriin smiled, but Hinata glanced fearfully at the two 18-year-olds on the other side of the ice dome. Fortunately, neither seemed to have noticed anything amiss.

"Ano...why did they make a clan in the first place?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Ah. Sumoggu and Kishimu's greatest dream," Tsume snorted.

"What do you mean?" Pooriin asked.

"They want to find a legend," Tsume answered, stroking Kageno's feathers in an annoyed fashion.

"The 'Gorgon'," Ezu explained, seeing the girls' blank looks, "A girl who, in a fit of rage, can see the weakness and flaw in any battle circumstance. The perfect killing machine."

"She can see any weakness that a person has, whether physically, emotionally, or, like, mentally," Emi added, running her hand through her shoulder-length hair absently.

"As in reading minds?" Pooriin asked.

"No, just the weakness and how to attack it," Emi answered, shaking her head, "And only when she's really mad. And I mean _really_ mad; her pupils will contract until her eyes turn black and they won't reflect light anymore. And that weakness-finding ability kicks immediately whenever she looks at anything. The Gorgon _has_ to destroy or kill; it can't stop itself."

"That's scary," Pooriin quailed, and Hinata nodded in agreement.

"The Gorgon can be anybody. She sometimes has a bloodline limit, and she always has tan skin, long black hair, a flat nose, and dark brown eyes when she's normal," Monoka explained, "And Sumoggu thinks we found her in your group."

"...Michi-chan," Hinata gasped, realization dawning on her.

"No way!" Pooriin protested, "She's going to be a medical ninja!"

"The Gorgon and the girl can be complete personality opposites," Ezu said, not looking at the hostages, "For a while, we thought it was you."

"But then your friend got mad," Monoka said, shaking a little, "And she became fire; fire's my biggest fear. Somehow she knew."

Hinata stared at the girls, stunned, and Pooriin took a moment to muster the courage to ask her next question.

"What are you going to do with her?" Pooriin asked hoarsely, and she cleared her throat before continuing, "If Michiko really _is_ the Gorgon, what're you going to do?"

"I'm not sure what they're thinking," Tsume said quietly, "But Sumoggu and Kishimu probably would want to use the Gorgon's ability. For their own goals, regardless of the consequences."

Pooriin and Hinata looked at each other, before looking down at the floor. They might lose their friend very, very soon.

"Girls," Sumoggu called to them, and all six on the other side of the shelter looked up, "Tie the hostages up again. That's enough freedom."

* * *

A/N: Everybody give Mokona a hug! (glomps Mokona)

Itachi: ...idiot.

Deniizu: How is her hair green?

Mokona: I was born that way!

Deniizu: Cool!

Itachi: ...

Michiko: I wonder how I'd look with _blue_ hair...

A/N: ...Ok, no. You're not getting blue hair in this fic, or any others.

Michiko: Aw...

Itachi: Just let the readers review!

Mokona: Wait, you have to say 'please'. (turns to reader) Review, please!


	17. Mission Day 6: Suizuka Ezu's Ability

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, an igloo, sheer force, the cereal saying, the universal hand sign of displeasure, a slightly overprotective brother, parallel personalities, or most of the chakra information.

Itachi: This writer sucks.

A/N: ...

* * *

"That's incredible..." 

Deniizu shook her head in disbelief; she agreed with Kiba. A large igloo, suspended in a tree, was no easy feat to create in early July. Both genins had moved closer to the dome-like structure, and now were hiding behind a thick tree, stealing glances at what they guessed was the enemy's hideout. Kiba leaned against the tree trunk, with Akamaru balanced on his head, while he spoke to Deniizu as she examined the hideout.

"Now what do we do? We've circled that thing, and it seems like there's no opening," Kiba said, thinking hard, "It would probably be stupid to just run in and try to break the igloo with sheer force."

"Only probably?" Deniizu rolled her eyes sarcastically before suggesting, "We should get help; one of us should run back to the path and get reinforcements."

Deniizu looked at Kiba. Kiba and Akamaru looked at Deniizu.

"I don't want to go!" Deniizu protested.

"Neither do I!" Kiba exclaimed.

"Why should I? Why not you?"

"I have Akamaru to back me up," Kiba pointed out, and Akamaru barked in agreement, "You'd be left here alone, and that's dangerous!"

"Why can't we both go?"

"_Somebody_ has to watch the igloo in case something happens!"

"But that isn't fair..."

"You're a kunoichi; suck it in and just go!"

"Teme!"

_**Smack!**_

"Ow! ...you hit me!"

"Arf!"

"Oh, shut up, both of you!" Deniizu growled, stomping away.

"Who shit in _her_ cereal?" Kiba grumbled to Akamaru, rubbing the back of his head.

_**Thock!**_

Kiba jumped a little when a kunai landed in the tree trunk, level to his eyes.

"That's dangerous!" he yelled, once he'd recovered, at Deniizu's retreating back.

Deniizu didn't bother to turn around. She merely made a crude hand gesture before disappearing into the trees. Kiba shook his head, and turned back to the igloo, watching for any of the enemy's movement. But he was watching too intently; before he knew it, someone had hit a pressure point on his neck from behind, stunning him completely. And then the fight began.

Remember, if you are scouting out enemy territory, focus on your surroundings as well as what you're spying on. Otherwise you'll get sneak-attacked.

The group was back in their formation, with Michiko and Shino carrying Kurenai on her stretcher in the center, Goudon on the right, Bikto on the left, and Korii leading the way. All four of Michiko and Deniizu's dogs defended up the group at its rear; all five ninjas were silent while they walked.

Michiko was trying to keep focused; trying to keep her eyes and ears open for any more attacks from the ninja bandits. But she couldn't stop thinking about the situation two of her best friends were in.

_Please, _please_ let them be all right,_ she was thinking fervently, _I want to do something to help, but I'm just a medical nin. Even less than that._

Goudon had similar thoughts; while he tried to watch for any threats, his mind was still on his sister's situation.

_If they've harmed her, I'll kill them._

Korii sensed someone approaching on his right, and turning, he saw with his Byakugan that Deniizu was quickly approaching.

"What's up?" Korii asked, when Deniizu reached the travelling party.

"We need a plan," Deniizu said brusquely, and explained what she had seen to her team leader.

And back to the un-natural igloo of d00m..

All of the people in the igloo looked up at the sound of a struggle at the doorway. Kishimu looked at Tsume, and with a sigh, she went to help Ruko drag yet another hostage into the shelter. When the new hostage landed in front of the other two captives, his hands tightly bound, Ruko reached into his backpack and let a white something land on top of the boy.

"TEME!" the brown-haired boy yelled, trying to bite at his captors, and Monoka and the cousins got up quickly to get out of range.

"Just as energetic as Pinky was over there," Sumoggu smirked, "If a little more foul-mouthed, anyway."

Kiba stopped struggling for a moment, and his and Pooriin's eyes met. Then he remembered that they were all hostages and began struggling again.

"I swear, when you untie me, you're all dead!" Kiba roared, and Akamaru managed to roll off of Kiba's back, trying to wriggle out of his bindings.

"That's not going to do any good," Ruko said in a deadpan, "The more you struggle, the tighter the ropes will be."

"You overdid it again," Emi sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"It's better than underestimating the enemy," Ruko pointed out, still expressionless, and Kiba stopped straining against his ropes, as if realizing something.

"He reminds me of Shino," Kiba noted, surprised.

"Just what _we_ were thinking," Pooriin and Hinata nodded.

"Shut up, hostages!" Sumoggu ordered, and Kishimu threw a well-aimed kunai so that it would graze Kiba's ear, drawing blood.

"That isn't necessary," Ruko said coolly, catching the kunai by its handle before it could hit the dog-user; Kishimu looked angry, but Sumoggu spoke as if nothing had happened.

"It's time for us to get along with our plan," the dark-haired boy said, picking up his travelling bag and heading towards the igloo door, "Ezu, once we're all out, undo your jutsu and make a new dome where I show you."

Ezu muttered something under her breath that no-one could understand, then nodded and began collecting her things. All the rest of the clan did the same, and the hostages were left alone. Kiba somehow managed to get into a kneeling position, and looked down at Akamaru, who was lying sideways beside him.

"You ok, boy?" Kiba said in a low voice, and Akamaru grinned with a small bark, "Yeah, I'm fine," Kiba grinned back, then looked at his two friends, concerned, "How about you guys? Everyone's worried about you."

Hinata couldn't help but smile inwardly at how Kiba seemed to only be talking to Pooriin. Pooriin was simply relieved that he didn't hate her anymore.

"We're all right," Pooriin answered, then lowered her tone so that only Kiba and Hinata could hear, "These people aren't really that bad. Most of them got tricked or bullied into joining. Sumoggu and Kishimu, the two boys who _didn't_ capture you, are the only problems we have. The girls and Ruko are willing to cooperate if it'll get them out of this clan."

"The youngest, Monoka, and Emi and Ezu, the two brown-haired girls, and Ruko, the boy in the brown coat, might just stand by if their leaders are targeted," Hinata added in a whisper, "But Tsume has to protect Kishimu, the red-haired boy. She got tricked into making an oath to him."

"_Tsume_?" Kiba choked, then strained his neck to try and catch a glimpse of her as she packed her things, "The girl with the falcon? She has the same name as my _mother_?"

"We thought you'd be like that," Pooriin said, looking apologetic.

"That's the one that I wanted to fight," Kiba exclaimed, getting exasperated, "Michiko said that we'd probably be the best matched, since she has a falcon, and I've got Akamaru."

"...If you do fight her," Pooriin said after a moment, "Just...you can go all out, but...it's not like she's fighting you because she wants to...you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Kiba nodded understandingly, but he was still peeved, "You guys are safe though, right?"

Pooriin and Hinata nodded simultaneously.

"Ano...they have a good cook," Hinata said, speaking just loud enough that Monoka could hear.

The green-haired girl flashed the Hyuuga heir a grin before walking towards the igloo door. Ruko, Emi and Tsume approached the three hostages; they each helped one captive onto their feet, and escorted them towards the door. Ruko stood by Kiba, Emi by Hinata, and Tsume by Pooriin; Kageno the falcon hovered over Akamaru while the white dog hobbled along with his slightly loosened ropes.

"Where's Ezu?" Pooriin asked, realizing that they were the last to leave.

"She's outside, already starting to cancel her Ice Dome Technique," Tsume answered, while Ruko held open the door for them, "It takes a little while to let go of the jutsu. She'll unravel what chakra she can, then let go of it completely when everyone is out."

Now, the captives had caught up to the rest of the group; Sumoggu and Kishimu stood by, while Ezu held a Ram handseal, obviously with some effort, facing the igloo.

"Watch," Tsume whispered, and all three pre-teens from Konoha observed how Ezu cancelled her jutsu.

They had expected the structure to melt, since it had been made from ice. But they were wrong; the once-white dome first turned yellow.

"Yellow chakra?" Hinata asked, able to activate her Byakugan for a second without handseals, before losing her control again.

"Chakra changes colours for whichever forms it takes," Ruko explained, still keeping an eye on Ezu, "Blue is either raw chakra, or attacking and destroying chakra. Green chakra is for healing."

"So, nee-chan over there has ugly yellow chakra, which is, like, constructing chakra," Emi said proudly, while the yellow chakra changed into blue, "She made her constructing chakra totally change properties, so that it, like, became ice. My cousin's awesome. The only problem, is that you lose about a third of the chakra that turns yellow."

_Changing chakra properties is one of the hardest things a ninja can do,_ Hinata thought, awed, _Bloodline limits make turning chakra into objects or elements easier, but it still takes quite a lot of skill._

Ezu's chakra, now in its raw form, was still in the same shape and size as the ice dome from before. Now, after making the Dog handseal, Ezu held her hands in front of her, palms out, like how Shino does when dispatching kikaichu from out of his sleeves. However, instead of directing something out of her sleeves, Ezu was actually calling back her chakra. In a steady stream, the blue, glowing substance reabsorbed itself into Ezu's body through her hands. The process didn't take long, but there was still quite a lot of chakra. Ezu fell to her knees on the treebranch she was standing on, promptly exhausted, but Sumoggu and Kishimu turned away and began walking towards the road, uncaring of their clan member's condition.

"Hurry up," Kishimu commanded, readjusting his glass jar backpack, "We've got a schedule to keep."

While the rest of the group moved quickly to follow, Kiba watched as Ruko took half a step to Ezu. But before he could get to her, Ezu shook her head to clear it, and began stumbling after the clan. Ruko watched her, sympathy on his face, then jogged to catch up to Kiba, who had been led by the shoulder by Tsume to keep up. After a little while of silent marching, Sumoggu marked a large circle into the ground using a kunai.

"This will be its borders," Sumoggu said to Ezu, who was watching him, still a bit sluggish from absorbing so much of her chakra, "Tsume, Kishimu, you'll stay with me and the hostages. The rest of you, you know what to do."

The boy in black made a dismissing motion, and after pouring water along the circle, the three younger girls and Ruko all jumped as one, disappearing into the trees. Kiba, Pooriin and Hinata, while being herded into the center of the circle in the ground, could all see that they were in sight of the road. And a little to the left, a group could be seen walking along the dirt path, straight towards them. In the front, there was a brown-haired girl in grey talking to a white-eyed boy in black.

"Korii nii-chan," Hinata breathed, eyes widening.

"Shut it," Sumoggu muttered, hitting Hinata upside, "Kishimu and I'll do the talking."

"Hey! Ghost-eyes!" Kishimu bellowed, waving both arms.

The whole group looked up and saw their three friends, all within enemy clutches.

"Dammit, Kiba, why'd you have to get caught?" Deniizu called, exasperated.

"Kuso, it's not like I did it on purpose!" Kiba called back, "Get us out of here!"

"Deniizu hasn't even finished describing what she saw," Bikto muttered darkly, "We're completely unprepared. And where are the other four bandits?"

Korii had been scanning the area surrounding the bandits and hostages quickly with his Byakugan, trying to locate the rest of the enemy. Not finding anyone, Korii tried scanning the woods alongside the road, and before long, he found all four of them. The long, brown-haired girl was making a series of handseals, and she was surrounded by her three teammates.

"One of them's about to do a jutsu," Korii barked, snatching a kunai out of his weapons pouch and whipping it towards the hidden enemy, "Put Kurenai down! Twins, cover me, the rest of you guard Kurenai!"

"Get started, Ezu," Ruko said, easily deflecting Korii's kunai with one of his own.

"Way ahead of you," Ezu said, gritting her teeth and holding a Rat handseal, concentrating hard on the area around the hostages.

Emi's grip on her waterballoons and shuriken tightened. She knew that the water on the ground would make her cousin's technique _much_ simpler, but there were dangers in any technique, and this jutsu was complex, even with water. Seeing Monoka shaking a little, Emi squeezed the girl's shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry, Monoka-chan," Ruko said, his voice unusually gentle, "Ezu and Emi will be able to talk to them."

"Unless they're too angry," Monoka pointed out, glumly, just as the charging ninjas reached the trees.

On the other side of the road...

"Excellent," Sumoggu smirked, as sheets of ice began to rise from the water on the ground around his group.

"This is going to be fun," Kishimu agreed, pulling out one of his jars.

Kiba started taking deep breaths, trying to keep his emotions in check so that he could think clearly. All of the group knew that a battle was near.

_I have to think of a way to help,_ Pooriin thought, racking her brains for a plan.

* * *

A/N: And, CLIFFHANGER! Ahahahaha! I am Queen of Cliffhangers! 

Itachi: You know, you risk losing readers if you keep leaving them on edge like that.

A/N: ...(shocked silence)

Itachi: It's time for you to review, reader.


	18. Mission Day 6: The Gorgon

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, funky chi, growing ice, the return of the 'fwip', and...stuff.

* * *

Michiko felt something in her blood bothering her, much like when the exploding tags from a few days before had been about to go off. But now, it reminded her of when she would turn into water, or air. 

"Can anyone else feel that? Or do I just have funky chi?" Michiko asked, turning away from watching Korii's group and looking around.

"I don't feel anything," Deniizu answered, still watching her team leader before he disappeared into the trees. Shino, however, looked straight at the bandit's group in sight, following a hunch.

"There," Shino pointed, consciously willing himself to stay calm.

"_Ice_?" Michiko exclaimed, seeing sheets of it begin to 'grow', just like the tendrils of ice that had caught Kurenai.

"Deniizu, Michiko, both of you help the hostages," Shino ordered, "The dogs and I will guard Kurenai-sensei."

Deniizu began running, but Michiko hesitated; she took a few steps, then looked back at Shino, still not sure whether to go.

"As co-team leader, I order you to go," Shino commanded tersely, and Michiko nodded before sprinting towards her friends.

Shino took his hands out of his pockets and stood at the ready, prepared for any attack. No-one would be able to touch his teacher now.

"Hurry up!" Pooriin yelled, urging Deniizu and Michiko on when she saw that they were approaching.

"Hurry up!" Kishimu taunted, poorly mimicking the Chatora girl's voice.

"Who said you could talk, anyway?" Sumoggu glared, punching Pooriin in the gut so that she landed hard on the ground.

"Hey!" Kiba shouted, landing a roundhouse kick on Sumoggu so that he fell onto the ground, "You leave her alone!"

"You little shit!" Sumoggu roared, bounding back up and throwing Kiba against the steadily growing ice wall.

Michiko and Deniizu could see that the sheets of ice were now over waist high.

_Will we make it?_ both thought, putting on an extra burst of speed.

Deniiizu managed to grab the top and volley herself over. Michiko, though, had been well behind her teammate. By the time she reached the almost-complete ice dome, the top was too high for her to reach.

"COME ON!" Michiko shrieked, landing a direct roundhouse kick on the ice wall that would have made her teacher proud.

But as heavy and well-formed the kick had been, in a moment, Michiko found herself on her back, seeing stars. Looking up at the ice wall, she saw that she hadn't even cracked it.

(_fwip)_

Korii first rushed Ruko, who was the bandit closest to where he had been running from. Ruko ducked a Juuken blow that was so forceful it might have sealed off his chakra flow permanently, but before he could retaliate, Korii used chakra to vault himself over the enemy. While he flipped, the Hyuuga lashed out at the girl in the center, who was still working on her jutsu, but the girl beside her deflected those attacks too. Once he had landed, Korii prepared to attack the greenhaired girl, but stopped himself. He was looking at a 10-year-old that looked terrified beyond anything.

"But...you're just a kid!" Korii exclaimed, just as the Chatora twins began attacking.

"It may be genjutsu or some kind of prodigy, Hyuuga," Bikto reminded, attacking Ezu but being deflected by Emi, while Goudon faced off against Ruko.

Inwardly cursing at himself, Korii reactivated his Byakugan.

"I'm sorry, kid," Korii said, getting into his fighting stance.

The greenhaired girl nodded, blinking back tears of fear, and reached into her ninja weapons pouch, preparing to fight back. Korii waited patiently, knowing neither of them wanted to fight.

Ruko decided that Ezu needed a little more time to finish her jutsu; he could see that the dome was still not quite complete. Landing a solid kick on Goudon's chest, Ruko grabbed Ezu around the waist, and ran blindly towards the road, just to give her enough space and time to finish the jutsu. Emi hurried to keep up, using her water balloon trick to move faster, and the twins followed, right on their heels.

"Almost!" Ezu exclaimed, seeing that all she needed was the dome's roof.

"Nee-chan! Like, hurry?" Emi gasped, barely ducking a kunai.

"Nearly there!" Ezu assured, while Ruko kept running.

"You're starting to get heavy," Ruko emphasized, realizing that he was slowing down.

"Then put her down!" Goudon yelled, putting on an extra burst of speed and body checking Ruko, just as Ezu yelled, "Done!"

Ruko dropped Ezu and went rolling, quite undignified, but managed to get right back on his feet gracefully before losing momentum. Turning, he saw that Ezu had decided to combat against Goudon, and started to walk towards them and help, when he felt eyes on him. Averting his eyes from Ezu, and reminding himself that she was a good fighter herself, he saw Shino looking straight at him.

"I suppose you're my fight, then," Ruko said, almost conversationally.

Shino merely nodded, and Ruko got straight into his fighter stance. Both knew that the other ninja was talented, and that the fight would be satisfying. Though Ruko kept his face still while preparing to fight, he winced inwardly.

_This fight would have been worth the effort,_ Ruko thought ruefully.

_(fwip)_

Deniizu landed lightly on her feet, and threw a kunai towards Kiba before spinning, almost ballet-like, to land a hard punch on Sumoggu.

"I saw you hit my friends," Deniizu said, almost cheerily, as she stood between the hostages and the enemy's leaders, "You're an idiot."

"Me?" Sumoggu raised an eyebrow, "But you're caught in our trap."

"Trap?" Deniizu smiled serenely, "Or arena?"

Kishimu felt a punch in his ribs, and a bite on his leg, before he fell right beside Sumoggu. Tsume swallowed her smile when she saw the way Kishimu was scowling. Pooriin and Hinata, who still didn't understand what had happened, saw Kiba get out of his fighter's crouch and stand beside Deniizu, with Akamaru snarling right beside him.

"Good job with that kunai!" Kiba complimented, handing it back to Deniizu, "It sliced right through those ropes."

"No problem," Deniizu grinned.

Michiko could only watch through the clear ice, but she still understood what was going on. When Deniizu glanced at her, Michiko gave her a small salute and a cheering motion with her arms.

_I know you'll do well,_ Michiko thought, _So save something for me to beat up once I get in._

_I'll remember that,_ Deniizu nodded, and turned back to the dog-user beside her, "Let's have some fun, Kiba."

_(fwip)_

While fighting, Goudon couldn't help but feel a little bit confused. First he looked from Ezu, who he was sparring against, then he glanced at Emi, who Bikto was fighting against.

_Oh, it's _not_ clones of the same person,_ he realized, _This one has longer hair._

Deflecting a jab from Ezu's kunai, Goudon grabbed her wrists, completely engulfing them with his own large hands. Holding her hands high up over her head so that she couldn't move her arms, Goudon examined her and her lookalike carefully.

"Are you two twins?" he asked after a moment, raising his eyebrows.

Ezu couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about how he was examining her, but she still answered.

"Uh...no," the ice-jutsu specialist answered, trying to wriggle away from Goudon, "We're cousins."

"Oh," Goudon nodded thoughtfully, before letting her wrists go and stepping back into a fighter's crouch similar to Lee's, "Ok. Carry on."

Ezu merely stared at the boy, and when Bikto and Emi saw what was happening, they also stopped fighting.

"...That's weird," Ezu stated, still trying to figure out what to do, while Goudon stayed in his crouch, waiting patiently for her to attack, "You're not going to try?"

"Neither are you two," Bikto pointed out, both he and Emi walking to stand beside their relative, "We only fight all out if the other person is too."

"So, why aren't you making an effort?" Goudon asked, relaxing from his crouch.

Emi looked at Ezu and smiled, relieved.

"Good thing these people can see sense," Ezu commented.

"Ok, so here's, like, our sitch," Emi started.

_(fwip)_

As soon as he saw the four dogs stand around Kurenai defensively, Ruko threw his backpack in a high arc over Shino's head, meaning to have it land behind the trenchcoated boy. Sensing something was amiss, Shino used his kikaichu to catch the bag and propel it back towards Ruko.

_He's smart,_ Ruko thought, nodding to himself.

_He's planning something,_ Shino thought, trying to figure out what.

Ruko let the backpack drop onto the ground beside him, and used the Body Flicker Technique to get on the other side of Shino. However, he held back and made his use of the technique obvious. Too obvious. Shino didn't even bother to turn when he used a kunai to deflect a shuriken that had been fairly slowly thrown towards his neck. Just when Ruko tried to charge, Shino turned and held his kunai out like a sword, pointing it straight at his opposition. Ruko stopped running, and after shrugging a little, he got into a fighter's stance similar to Sasuke's.

"What're you trying to pull?" Shino asked bluntly, still holding out his kunai, "I know you can fight better than this. But your movements are obvious and slow. What are you planning?"

Ruko got out of his stance and put slowly his weapons away.

"Allow me to explain," Ruko began, a wry smile on his face.

_(fwip)_

Korii slowly walked back to the road with Monoka right in step beside him. Though the Hyuuga had gotten a little heated about the fact that this greenhaired runaway was the one who had temporarily blinded him, he still gave her a fair chance to explain herself. And once he had heard her case, he decided that he might as well help her. Which Monoka thought was wonderful.

"I'm not gonna die!" Monoka cheered to herself in a singsong voice, "Instead I'm gonna be free!"

"Only if you quiet down," Korii muttered, "I need to think."

"Oh, ok! I'll be quiet!" Monoka nodded enthusiastically, clapping a hand over her mouth.

As they walked in silence, Korii couldn't help but think, _At least she _is_ quiet when she says she will be. Linda back at home just keeps talking._

_(fwip)_

Michiko was desperate to get into the ice dome now.

Deniizu was doing fine facing off against Kishimu; she had a surgeon's mask that Michiko had lent to her over her mouth and nose, and she kept disrupting her chakra so that Kishimu's genjutsu couldn't affect her. Kiba was sparring against Tsume, who had to try and help the person she had sworn to defend, and he was fairly safe since Tsume wasn't really doing her best. Even Kageno was simply hovering over Akamaru, who was only barking at the falcon. But Sumoggu was still in the dome, as was Hinata and Pooriin. While the rest of his group was fighting, Sumoggu had slipped over to the side of the dome that Michiko and the hostages were at. Wanting to ensure that Michiko truly was the Gorgon that he was looking for, Sumoggu decided to get her angry. How? By beating Hinata where Michiko could see.

"See this, bitch?" Sumoggu laughed nastily as he kicked Hinata roughly in the stomach, "Nothing you can do about it, huh?"

_Kamisama, make him stop!_ Pooriin thought, now frantically trying to free herself.

"Leave her alone!" Pooriin yelled, one hot tear of frustration running down one cheek.

"You prick!" Michiko screamed, battering her fists against the clear ice wall, "I hate you! Leave Hinata alone!"

Hinata could only silently cry to herself, making yelps of pain each time a kick landed.

"I'd like to see you try and stop me!" Sumoggu sneered, kicking again.

"Hinata, you can fight!" Pooriin yelled, another tear falling, "Come on! I know you can!"

_I can't do anything! _Pooriin thought, angry with herself, _I can't do anything!_

"Kiba, Michiko can handle it," Deniizu shouted, when she saw Kiba moving towards the other side of the dome, "Stick to your own fight!"

Michiko could see now that Hinata was coughing up blood; if she was angry before, she was livid now. Feeling herself turn into fire, she just barely controlled it so that her clothes also changed elements.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Michiko screamed, calling as much chakra as she could into her left fist, and punching as hard as she was capable of, directly into the wall of ice.

"...yes..." Sumoggu grinned as he moved out of the way of shards of ice, a strange light shining in his eyes.

Hinata was low and close enough to the wall to actually be below where the ice was flying. Michiko felt excruciating pain in her fist, shocking her out of being fire as she stepped into the dome. Kiba was too focused on his sparring match to notice ice shards embedding themselves in his arm, but Deniizu winced when she felt her leg getting cut. Turning to see what had caused that, Kishimu took the chance to throw a chakra-powered punch at her face, giving her enough momentum to slide across the room with a fresh black eye, loosing the surgeon's mask on her face in the process.

Pooriin saw, and wished she could help.

_I'm always only in the way,_ she thought, a third tear falling.

Looking down, Michiko saw that she had only released enough chakra to merely crack the wall; the rest had been her own strength. Since her training had not gotten her hands used to heavy beating, her hands would have been sorely bruised or bleeding. But the sheets of ice had acted like glass, and Michiko could see large shards of it sticking out of her hand; blood was dripping off of her fist.

"Shoot," Michiko whispered to herself, stunned and all too aware of the pain in her hand.

Sumoggu took this moment to grab Michiko around the neck. The boy was much taller and stronger than her; he easily lifted her up off the ground by her throat.

_I'm so weak..._Pooriin thought, two more tears streaking her cheeks, _Everyone's always taking care of me, and now I can't pay them back._

Sumoggu chuckled at Michiko feeble attempts at fighting back. She hadn't trained enough, he could see, she still needed a lot of oxygen to fight.

"A pity," Sumoggu muttered to himself, "The Gorgon is so easy to intimidate."

"That just means we have better control over her," Kishimu pointed out, sauntering slowly to where Deniizu lay; the girl had hit her head against the wall, and lay on the ground, stunned.

"That's true," Sumoggu nodded slowly.

Pooriin looked at Kiba, who was still fighting against Tsume, then to Hinata, who was curled up in the fetal position and silently crying, to Deniizu and Michiko, whose fights were slowly slipping away from them.

_WHY CAN'T I DO ANYTHING? WHY AM I ALWAYS SO WEAK? _Pooriin screamed inwardly to herself.

"**Why am I always so useless?**" Pooriin finally screamed on the outside, not realizing how her eyes were suddenly changing.

"'Why' indeed," Kishimu smirked, slowly raising Deniizu up by her hair.

**The weakness in the ropes is here, **Pooriin's thoughts said, and instinctively she broke them apart completely, **Kishimu's weakness is a thin skull. Hitting him at this angle will be enough.**

Pooriin jumped up and grabbed one of the glass jars that Kishimu stored scent in. Whirling towards him, she spun and cracked it hard against his head, using enough force to send him pitching towards the ice dome's wall. A sickening crack was heard, and Kishimu's body went slack as he slid to the floor, never to rise again.

"...Gawd...Pooriin..." Deniizu scrambled away from the dead body, "You just...!"

Tsume froze where she was, seeing Kishimu fall, and Kiba immediately hurried to the other side of the dome.

"Pooriin, what happened?" Kiba asked, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Pooriin finally looked away from Kishimu's body, and the rest of the dome could see that her eyes no longer reflected the sunlight coming in through the dome's glass-like ice.

"_She's _the Gorgon?" Sumoggu exclaimed unbelievingly, dropping Michiko and accidentally spitting.

**The Kiba's greatest weakness is me. To destroy...to destroy the self...to...**Pooriin's thoughts suddenly couldn't connect anymore.

"Pooriin?" Kiba stepped towards her slowly, holding his hand out, "What's wrong? What happened to your eyes?"

Pooriin looked down and shook her head, clearing her thoughts completely. The whole time, she didn't blink. When she looked up again, the first thing she saw was Deniizu at Michiko's side, both trying to take care of the other.

_The Gorgon _has_ to kill or destroy everything it sees,_ Tsume had said, _It's that form's only purpose. She can't stop herself.

* * *

_

A/N: AAAAAAAAH!

Michiko: AAAAAAAH!

Deniizu: ...aaaaah?

Michiko and Esperwen: (points to Gorgon) AAAAAAAH!

Itachi: (rolls eyes) Uuuugh...idiots. Reader, you must review.

A/N: No, I don't mean the fact that Pooriin's the Gorgon. I mean that this fic has one more chapter!

Deniizu, Michiko, Pooriin: AAAAAAAH!


	19. Mission Day 27: Returning

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the name 'the Gorgon', and I'm not going to say anything else, in case I give away the end.

A/N: Normally, I would be melodramatic here, but I've already got like five chapters for the Fourth Portal fic, so I won't.

Itachi: That, and the fact that I'm holding her brother hostage in case she goes into hysterics.

A/N: You can be such a jerk...

* * *

**Deniizu's weakness is her pride. Michiko's weakness is her quick emotions**, the Gorgon thought, **Deniizu's physical weakness is her heart. Michiko's physical weakness is the fourth vertebra on her spine.**

Pooriin moved toward Michiko first, who was closest, and hauled her up by the hair.

"P-pooriin? Pooriin, w-what're you doing?" Michiko stammered, trying to free herself.

**If she is thrown to the side at this angle and this hard, she will die, **the Gorgon thought, and moved her arm to do so.

"What the _hell_?" Deniizu exclaimed, jumping behind Michiko so that when she was thrown, they collided and some impact was absorbed, "Pooriin, what the fuck are you doing?"

"The Gorgon will even attack former friends," Sumoggu thought out loud, watching in amazement.

"What's wrong with her?" Kiba asked Tsume briskly, half in fear, "Why does he keep calling her a 'Gorgon'? Why is she acting like this? Can you stop her?"

Tsume closed her eyes and thought hard, trying to find a loophole in the legends of the Gorgon that Kishimu had told her. Kiba looked from Tsume to Pooriin, trying not to get hysterical. Pooriin was moving slowly, but getting closer to Michiko and Deniizu. Both were paralyzed where they were, simply staring at Pooriin as she walked towards them.

"What's going on in her head?" Michiko asked, distressed.

"I don't know! She's blocking me!" Deniizu answered, trying to slow Pooriin down with her telekinesis, but somehow not able to control her limit properly.

Tsume's eyes snapped open, and held her wrist out to the side. Kageno was perched there in a flash, and Tsume whispered something to him. Kageno seemed to nod, and he flew off of her wrist in a hurry.

"What're you doing?" Kiba asked, watching the bird fly towards Pooriin.

"Your friend over there appears to be the Gorgon of legend. A complete killing machine, she acts against everything that she sees," Tsume explained, "Perhaps if she didn't see anything-"

"You're going to blind her?" Kiba exclaimed, running towards his girlfriend.

"Hold on, Speedy," Tsume ordered, grabbing Kiba's shoulder so that he stopped, "Kageno's not going to blind her. I just want him to get her to close her eyes."

"Huh?" Kiba looked at Tsume, confused.

"Haven't you noticed yet? Pooriin's black eyes over there hasn't blinked once," Tsume said, still watching her falcon.

Before Pooriin realized, Kageno swooped down and hit her face with a wing. Both the sudden rush of air and the feeling of something in her eye forced her body's reflex of blinking. As soon as her link to sight was cut off, even though for a second, Pooriin's eyes went back to their usual colour. Finally coming back to herself, Pooriin looked at her friends realized what she had almost done.

"Oh my gosh," she whispered to herself, covering her face with her hands.

Sumoggu, however, did not like the way this was going. If the Gorgon came back to her senses, her rescuers might end up remembering what he had done and try to attack him. He had to get away. Pulling Hinata up and holding her as a shield in front of him, he held a kunai at her throat to discourage her from struggling.

"Tsume, come on," Sumoggu ordered, moving towards the hole in the dome that Michiko had made.

"Put her down, Sumoggu," Tsume glared, just as Kageno landed back on her wrist, "Kishimu's dead; I'm not on your team anymore."

Sumoggu glowered at her, seeing that she was serious, then continued trying to escape.

"Fine! First, I'll collect the ransom for Princess here, then I'll be back!" Sumoggu yelled, "Just wait until I show up at your doorstep with the Gorgon on my side, Tsume! You'll pay for abandoning me."

Tsume was about to retort, when a keening sound pierced the air. To say it was a horrible, extremely high-pitched sound would be a huge understatement.

"What is that?" Michiko thought out loud, "Shoot, why didn't I bring the dogs with me?"

No one could hear her though, not even herself; everyone was trying to cover their ears as best they could. Looking up, Deniizu could see that the ice dome was vibrating. Michiko, with her eyes squeezed shut, could feel the ice shards in her hand also shaking.

"What's going on?" Tsume asked.

"WHAT?" Kiba asked back, leaning towards her.

The sound continued, somehow getting louder and louder. Finally, the ice dome could not take the strain any longer; the whole structure shattered into small shards, as did the pieces in Michiko's fist.

"OH SHIT!" Deniizu yelled, shutting her eyes tight like everyone else, expecting the fragments of ice to fall and obliterate them completely.

However, before the shards could land, the shrill sound ended and a gigantic wind jutsu blew most of them sideways, away from harm. Except for the ones nearest to Sumoggu. One final, agonized scream was all the group heard. Then there was a soft thump, and silence.

One by one, the group opened their eyes and looked around. First Tsume, then Deniizu, followed by Kiba and Michiko. Pooriin fell to her knees when she saw that she was alive, and Kiba hurried to her side. Michiko and Deniizu, knowing that Pooriin was in good hands, rushed to help Hinata out from under Sumoggu's corpse; the former clan leader vaguely resembled Kimimaru, only with ice instead of bones in his back. Hinata began silently crying again, once Michiko and Deniizu shoved Sumoggu away, and Michiko held her in a tight hug, while Deniizu stood by them protectively, wondering who had saved them. Tsume reached down and petted Akamaru comfortingly; the sound had not been kind to the dog's sensitive ears. The fight was really over.

After giving them a sufficient interval of time to recover, the person who had completely destroyed Ezu's ice dome made a polite cough. All six teens looked up, and saw their liberator standing on a branch, his arms crossed, with a faint smile on his face.

"Yosh, Inel-sensei," Deniizu waved weakly.

"Yosh," the former sound-nin nodded in greeting, "I leave you for two days, and this is what I see. My, my. I'm going to have to send you on D-rank missions for a long, long time."

Inel-sensei rocks! W00t w00t! 1227! ...ok, I'll stop.

Michiko exited the Thyme Village's medical clinic, finally feeling that her mission was finished. Two days after arriving at their destination, Kurenai had awakened. True to an unofficial schedule that they had set up over the past few days, Shino, Hinata, the Four Musketeers, and the rest of Team 13 were sitting down on the steps in front of the small building, waiting for Michiko. Michiko smiled to them all and sat down between Deniizu and Shino.

"Ano, is Kurenai-sensei up yet?" Hinata asked, clasping her hands tightly.

"Yeah," Michiko nodded, "All those tranquilizers finally wore off. They were tranquilizers! Sumoggu put poison, paralyzers, and _tranquilizers_ into that injection! I had no idea!"

"But now you know," Inel smiled, "Now you can find and treat tranquilizers too."

"I guess," Michiko shrugged, but immediately brightened up when she remembered something, "Oh! Guess what was the first thing that she said when she woke up!"

Michiko laughed when everyone simply waited for the answer.

"She said 'Asuma'! The first thing she said was Team 10's sensei's name!" Michiko exclaimed.

"...and we care, why?" Korii asked, after a moment, when only Hinata and Michiko were the ones smiling.

"Oh, forget it," Michiko sighed, petting Aramis and D'Artagnan, who had crawled onto her lap, "What did I miss today?"

Right after Inel had returned to them, he had sent Shino and Ruko to get medical ninjas, since the village was only half a day's march away. Kurenai had gone straight to the clinic, while Kiba and Michiko's comparatively minor injuries were healed right away. Deniizu had a minor concussion, and Hinata had some internal bleeding, so they had to be taken to the clinic too, but other than that, the group was fairly unscathed. Michiko had gone to the clinic each day, watching as Kurenai and Hinata were treated, so she ended up missing a lot of what happened during the day. However, her friends were always waiting on the steps for her in the afternoon, ready to fill her in on the village's events.

"Well, today's Kiba's birthday," Deniizu said, speaking for the group, "So he and Pooriin are spending the day together. Don't worry, I gave him your gift before they left. Other than that, everything's cool."

"That's good," Michiko nodded, "I hope he liked the dagger I got him."

"Don't worry; he did."

"Yay! Has Tsume left, yet?"

The day before, Emi, Ezu, Ruko and Monoka had all left the Thyme Village for their seaside home. Monoka would help the cousins on their family farm, and Ruko, who lived in the same village, was naturally travelling with them. Now, Tsume was the last bandit left of the former 'clan'.

"Yeah," Korii nodded, "She left early this morning. Didn't even say 'goodbye'."

Michiko sighed a little; she had come to like the 17-year-old.

* * *

_"Why don't you come with us to Konoha?" Michiko asked, while the four former bandits disappeared into the distance._

_"Yeah, you'd make a great ninja," Kiba added, and Akamaru barked his encouragement._

_"Sorry, guys, I can't," Tsume answered wistfully, "I'm perfectly happy with training to be a bodyguard with my baby brother."_

_"That's what you're family does?" Deniizu exclaimed, "Shit! That's so cool!"_

_"Yeah, whatever," Tsume shrugged, her cheeks tinged pink._

_"Wow..." Michiko had stars in her eyes, "_I_ wanna be a bodyguard when I grow up..."_

_"Idiot, you're already a ninja!" Korii exclaimed, punching Michiko's arm so that she fell over.

* * *

_

"I hope she's ok," Michiko thought out loud, leaning against Deniizu a little.

"She'll be fine," Korii said, "She's got Kageno, not to mention she's a good fighter and everything."

"...So," Michiko spoke up again after a moment, breaking the silence, "What's the plan, Inel-sensei? What training do we have for the rest of the day."

"Actually," Inel said slowly, "There is no thing for us to do that is planned. We can have a free day. Tomorrow, we do the missions that the village gives us while the reunion is happening."

"Sweet! Free day!" Deniizu cheered, pumping both arms in the air, and accidentally throwing Michiko off of her shoulder, "Oops. Sorry..."

"No problem," Michiko grinned tiredly, leaning on Shino now.

"Well, I will be going now," Inel said, waving and walking away, "I must take this chance to play violin for the village!"

Michiko and Hinata waved as he left, and then there was more silence.

"...None of us have any plans?" Hinata asked after another moment of silence.

"Nope," Deniizu shrugged, playing with a kunai.

"Nada," Michiko said quietly, already half-asleep, and Shino shook his head.

"Actually, there is one thing," Korii spoke up, holding a finger up for attention, "Didn't we have plans, now that our mission is over?"

Deniizu blinked, and Michiko sat bolt upright, no longer tired.

"Oh, yeah..." Deniizu nodded slowly.

"Y-you guys weren't serious," Hinata stammered.

Team 13 merely looked at each other, smiling mischieviously. Deniizu pulled her brass knuckles out of her weapons pouch and put them on, while Michiko rolled her head around to get any cricks out of her neck, and Korii cracked his knuckles and stretched.

"Time to go," Michiko said in a spooky, low voice, rubbing her hands together.

"'Scuse us, guys," Deniizu smiled cheerily, and Michiko getting up and stretching luxuriously, "We have a date with a certain 15-year-old chuunin."

All five genins heard a boy sneeze, somewhere in the village, and Korii led Team 13 towards the sound at a run.

"Oh, Bikto!"

Ehehehehe...

About three weeks later, all eleven of the original travellers were on the road, headed back for Konoha in their old formation. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and again, Bikto was doing his best to be intolerable.

"Are we there yet?" Bikto asked.

"No," Pooriin, Kiba and Goudon all chorused.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"I can't believe this guy," Michiko sighed.

"One would think he would give up," Inel nodded.

Korii sighed and continued leading his group down the road.

_We had a lot of training done,_ Korii thought, _Iruka-sensei was smart; he realized that Firu, my old teammate, and Michiko have the same bloodline limit. Michiko knows how to use her extra sense of approaching elements now; that's how she knew when giant fireballs or ice jutsus were going to be made. ...Oh, crap. Firu._

Korii turned, while still walking, and looked straight at his teacher, only to see that Inel was looking right back at him.

"Kuso," Korii muttered under his breath, facing forward again and still leading.

"...What is it, sensei?" Michiko asked, seeing the look that passed between the two shinobi.

At first Inel was silent, but then he leaned towards his student and said in a very low voice:

"...There is another portal traveller."

**The End...for now.**

* * *

A/N: AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Itachi: ...

A/N: I AM QUEEN OF THE CLIFFHANGER!

Itachi: Enough...

A/N: HEAR ME ROAR!

Itachi: I've still got your brother.

A/N: ...I'll be good. Please review! (fake smile)


	20. Check it out!

Michiko: It's up!

Pooriin: What's up?

Michiko: (looks up)

Deniizu: (hits Michiko upside)

Deniizu: Ok, Esperwen? Stop writing like this; it sounds like a really bad commercial or something.

Esperwen: Got it.

Michiko: Anyways...THE SEQUEL'S UP!

Pooriin: The fourth Portal?

Michiko: Yes, the fourth Portal!

Pooriin: REALLY?

Michiko: REALLY!

Deniizu: You're both really dumb...

Ruroni: (pushes Esperwen away from the keyboard) ok, thats enough. yo. ya, the sequel is up. look under either 'itachi' and 'shino' as main characters with 'humor' or 'general' as the genre, or type in the title 'portal: chuunin'.

Michiko: Hm, I wonder what _this_ fic's all about.

Esperwen: Sorry for the wait, guys! But we're seriously posting now! Brap, brap!

Ruroni: ...ok, never again.

Esperwen: (hangs head) Yes ma'am...


End file.
